Pakistan committed suicide with clinical efficiency in the second game of the Sharjah tournament; not even Dr Jack Kevorkian could have helped somebody do it better. Cruising at 173 for four and needing just 72 in the last 12, Pakistan ended with 224 for nine, 19 short of the Sri Lankan effort of 243 for eight. Nobody could blame the batting conditions which were perfect on the day. It was just one of those things which happen in one-day cricket.
This was Aravinda de Silva's 200th one-day tie and from his point of view it had just one blemish -- he was adjuged man of the match for the second day running and his team won but the man himself missed out on a century by just three runs. But for once de Silva was not the dominant batsman in the Sri Lanka innings; he was overshadowed by a thoroughly transformed Marvan Atapattu who looked a classy batsman, far removed from the character who had struggled the previous day.
Atapattu's cover drives were the talking point and he outscored de Silva with ease. He was not afraid to come down the wicket to the spinners and he picked the gaps well. He fell six short of what would have been a maiden hundred. The pair put on 184 after the openers had gone with just four on the board; the partnership equalled Lanka's best (Gurusinghe and de Silva in the World Cup against Kenya in Kandy) and bettered the Sharjah record, that of 175 between Sidhu and Azhar in 1995.
Lanka suffered some kind of a minor collapse towards the end of their innings but de Silva and Atapattu had ensured that the final total would take some chasing. Five wickets went down for 21 in the last five overs and Saqlain grabbed three of them. No bowler really had it easy as the wicket offered nothing. Wasim Akram chose to field after winning the toss even though he had just two seamers -- himself and Waqar in the side. He might have done better batting first.
Thus, he had to turn to the medium-pace of Malik midway through the innings. Both de Silva and Atapattu had started scoring with ease off him and Waqar and the spinners were brought on to stem the flow. This they did for a while, but the batsmen soon got used to them and then the runs started coming easily again. At this point, Wasim did nothing and just let things drift. It got easier and easier for Lanka and by the time a change was made, the batsmen were both very well set.
Pakistan's cause was served well by Shahid Afridi and Salim Malik; the former was at his explosive best and smashed five sixes and four boundaries in his 67 which came off 55 balls. Malik made a more sedate 51. But after that, the gates opened and the game came to a rather abrupt end as far as Pakistan were concerned. They needlessly lost wickets, including two run-outs. Moin Khan made an unbeaten 30 but that was not enough. It was a sorry show especially when they had manoeuvred themselves into a position from where they needed to just get a run a ball to win.
With two straight wins, Lanka now have a well-deserved couple of days off before they play their next tie on Monday. There is a rest day on Saturday and the tournament resumes with Zimbabwe taking on Pakistan on Sunday.