Asia Cup: Afridi's heroics go in vain as Sri Lanka snatch a win

Shahid Afridi: Sri Lanka skipper confessed its the best he has seen him bat

Shahid Afridi played a sterling innings reminiscent of his early years on the international arena to almost get his team over the target yesterday. Chasing SriLanka’s 242, Pakistan were at one time 32 for 4 when their captain arrived, and even though wickets were falling all around him, his effort left Pakistan 17 short of victory.

It was the opening encounter in the Asia Cup at Dambulla. Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first on a evenly balanced pitch. They lost both their openers cheaply with Dilshan scoring just 18 runs. Captain Sangakkara steered the Sri Lankan innings and scored 42 runs along with partner and former captain Jayawardene who scored a half century to pull things back for the hosts. After Sangakkara got out it was Angelo Matthews (55*) who helped Sri Lanka to post a decent score of 242.

Shoaib Akhtar made a decent comeback, picking three wickets in his ten overs, including those of Tharanga and Kapugedara. New find Aamer took 2 wickets for 57 runs, and the remaining bowlers Asif, Razzaq, Afridi and Malik took a wicket each.

With a deep and strong batting line-up of Pakistan the target was chaseable. But, the Sri Lankan bowling headed by a destructive Malinga turned out to be too tough to defend. Pakistan too lost their openers early with Salman Butt out for a duck and S. Hasan scoring just 11 runs, the target was suddenly looking massive. Shahid Afridi then arrived, and played like a star. He scored his 5th ODI century to give his team some chances of winning, his first in five long years. He achieved a strike rate of 143 and hit seven sixes in his innings, particularly being severe to Muralitharan who went for 71 in his quota of overs. Yet it was one of the most sensible innings by Afridi who never lost his cool. It was a new and mature Afridi we witnessed, and what a treat it was. However, wickets kept falling even in his presence and in the humidity he started to cramp. Sangakkara denied him a runner and he clearly struggled for his last 17 runs. With 196-6 and all the capable batsmen back in the pavilion the match was slipping out of the Pakistan’s clasp. Afridi also fell finally failing to negotiate a sharp ball from Murali which turned a mile to touch his gloves and falling into the hands of Sangakkara for a good catch. It was game over as the following batsmen fell like a pack of cards for single figures. Afridi’s presence was the key as his team could easily have won if he stayed in the middle. Malinga was the wrecker-in-chief, taking 5 wickets to demolish Pakistan’s top order and the lower order, and received the man of the match award even after Afridi’s heroics. Pakistan lost by 16 runs.

It was a fantastic start to the Asia Cup, and thankfully we witnessed a classical battle between the bat and the ball. With the four Asian countries (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) battling it out for the Asia cup it looks like India isn’t going to have it easy. With India playing the unpredictable Bangladesh today, it’s going to be interesting to see whether the Bangladesh team can once again pull out something special like they did during the 2007 World Cup or whether it is going to be the world number 2 (ODI) team who will display that they deserve to be one of the best in the world.Lets wait and watch.