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Pakistan manage its mess

Sports Reporter
A cool, collected Akhter Sarfaraz with a brilliant unbeaten half century guided the struggling Pakistan A to an exciting one-wicket win over Sri Lanka A in their last round robin match of the third SAARC cricket tournament at the Dhaka Stadium yesterday.
The left-hander scored an unbeaten 64 as Pakistan, chasing a modest Sri Lankan total of 130. limped to victory 133 with one wicket in hand and with more than ten overs to spare in the 50-over-a-side affair.
With this win Pakistan, who had earlier confirmed their passage to Friday's final, maintained a clean slate having won all the three matches on way to the finale. For Sri Lanka, the defeat meant a tense and uncertain wait for the result of today's match between hosts Bangladesh and holders India to know who will meet Pakistan in the final of the regional one-day meet. Net run-rate will be summoned to • decide the other finalist, if India A hand the hosts th$r t^iird sUM-es^W ■defeat because iri that case botn the Lankans and the Indians will have three points each.
The way to this drama of calculation and tension was paved by Sarfaraz. who fought a lone battle in the middle of funeral procession at the other end as his peers came and went in an unprofessional display of irresponsible batting. Having given the impression of a basher cut out for the optimal use of the first 15 overs in the Erevious matches, this left-ander was a revelation yesterday. Watchful in his 110 ball match-winning essay, Sarfaraz nevertheless reached the boundary on 11 occasions. De-servingly, brought up his side's victory with a square cut off Sri Lankan skipper Ruwan Kalpage's bowling.
Sarfaraz not only scored his first fifty of the tourney but also provided the saving grace to the fantastic Job done earlier in the morning-by the bowlers; specially. Aaqib Javed, who made light of the absence of his more vaunted pace peer Mohammed Zahid by ripping through the Sri Lankan top order with a splendid exhibition of controlled seam and swing bowling.
Facing a rather undemanding challenge of scoring less than three runs per over for victory, Pakistan, who made some change in the batting order, were off to a disastrous start losing half of their wickets for only 23 runs.
Salim Elahi ran himself out in the very first ball of the innings. The young right-hander who was at the non-striker's end started off without calling his partner and when bowler Liyanage broke the wicket at the bowler's end following a throw by Kalpage from covers. Elahi and Azam Khan were huddled together at one end and the former walked out.
After the departure of Elahi. Mohammed Wasim, regarded as one of the young batting talents in the world now started the rot by nicking an outgoing delivery from Villavarayan to Wikre-maratne in the slips.
Skipper Asif Mujtaba and Mujahid Jamshed _ both perished quickly, nibbling at deliveries better to be left alone and Kalpage's almost stationary slip cordon had a busy day.
After that horrible start, Akhter Sarfaraz and wicketkeeper Wasim Yousafi got involved in a rebuilding operation putting on 45 runs for the sixth wicket before the latter departed in the fashion of his predecessors.
Yousafi. who scored a patient 13. ended up offering a regulation catch behind the wicket when he attempted to drive a wide, outswinging half volley from Bandula Ranjith, the most successful Sri Lankan bowler with an eventual analysis of three for 27 from his quota of ten overs.
But Sarfaraz. who was out to Khis manager Zaheer Ab-ecision to demote him in the batting order in order to strengthen his credentials as a middle-order bat for the Pakistan national team in future, stood his ground in a way as if
he was playing the innings of his life.
Things really looked as if they were heading towards an unrewarding direction for Sarfaraz when the ninth Pakistani wicket fell with the score on 117. But with Aaqib Javed , the last Pakistani batsman playing the perfect foil at the other end, Sarfaraz decisively swung the pendulum his side’s way by pulling a rising ball from Liyanage down to the square leg boundary in the 39th over. He then took a single from the last ball of the Sri Lankan seamer to regain the strike in the next over bowled by off spinner Kalpage with Pakistan needing two runs for a win. After two dot balls. Sarfaraz picked the unprotected backward point fence for a four off the third ball of the third over by Kalpage who showed quite a bit of imagination and aggression in setting field as well as handling his bowlers.
Earlier, sent into bat in the morning by Pakistan skipper Asif Mujtaba; Sri Lankan total , wa^wiHmqMAld
skipper Kalpagq.
Tlie left-hander, who came into bat at number seven with his side tottering at 35 for five, hammered three fours and a huge sixer in his knock. While Wickremaratne. who shared 45 runs for the sixth wicket with his captain and smote off-spinner Arshad an extra ordinary over boundary over cover, chipped in with 28.
Among the Pakistan bowlers Aaqib Javed returned most successful with fine figures of four for 17 from about nine overs. Azhar Mahmood, who opened the attack with Aaqib in the absence of Mohammed Zahid . rested for the day along with Basit Ali. gave only 14 runs off seven overs.
Off-spinner Arshad Khan, appearing for the first time in this four-nation invitational tourney, finished with two for 38 and slow left-armer Mohammed Hussain took two for 11 in his six nagging overs.
The redeeming feature of Pakistani bowling was that not one wide was conceded by their seamers who enjoy the rather dubious distinction of having contributed significantly in a
hefty total of 93 extras in the previous two matches.
SCOREBOARD
Scoreboard of the SAARC cricket match between Sri Lanka A and Pakistan A:
SRI LANKA A R Peiris c Azhar b Aaqulb 3
M Jayawardena c Yousafi b Azhar 4
N Nawaz b Aaquib 6
W Waragoda lbw b Aaqulb 0
Iiassanayaka c Mujtaba b Mujahid 4 Wirkramarathe c Mujahid b Arshad 28
Kalpage c Mujahid b Aaquib 54 fjtiqnd^ua c Yousafi b Hossain 3 ijyanage c Azhar b Arshad 1
! Villavarayan st Yousafi b HossajP,!? • B Ranjit not out ' '0
Extras:"(lb-10: nb-2L 12
Total: (all out In 4E4’oversl 130
Fall of wkts: 1/7: 2/13; 3/17;
4/17: 5/35; 6/89; 7/100. 8/101; 9/130; 10/130
Bowling O M R W
Aaqulb Javed 8.1 2 17 4
Azhar Mahmood 7 3 14 1
Mujahid Jamshed 10 0 40 1
Arshad Khan 10 I 38 2
Mohammed Hossain 6 1 112 PAKISTAN A
Azam Khan b Ranjit 4
S Elahi run out 0
M Wasim c Wickramaratne b
Villavarayan 1
A Mujtaba c Wickramaratne b
Ranjit 12
M Jamshed c Peiris b
Vlllayavarayan 0
A Sarfaraj not Out 64
W Yousafi c Dassanayaka b Ranjit 13 M Hossain c Liyanage b Jayawardena 7
Azhar c Jayawardena b Chandana 8 Arshad c Dassanayake b Liyanage 0
Aaquib Javed not out 2
Extras: (lb-4: nb-2: w-16) 22
Total: (for 9 wkts in 39.3 overs) 133
Fall of wkts: 1/0; 2/4; 3/20; 4/23; 5/23; 6/68; 7/86: 8/108; 9/117
Bowling O M R W
D Liyanage 7 2 22 1
M Villavarayana 10 1 31 2
B Ranjit 10 3 27 3
R Kalpage 23 0 16 0
Jayawardena 5 0 17 1
U Chamdana 5 0 16 1
Result: Pakistan won by one wicket.
Man-of-the-match: Akthar Sarfaraj (Pakistan A)
STANDINGS
Team M W L P R/R
Pakistan A 3 3 0 6
Sri Lanka A 3 1 1 3’(-.018)
India A 2 0 1 1*(-1.36)
Bangladesh 2 0 2 0
Note: ‘Sri Lanka A and India A awarded one point each for their abandoned match.