Pakistan takes home Asia Cup

DHAKA, JUNE 7: A combination of Moin Khan's blazing strokeplay in the slog overs and lethargic Sri Lankan catching saw Pakistan win their ...

DHAKA, JUNE 7: A combination of Moin Khan’s blazing strokeplay in the slog overs and lethargic Sri Lankan catching saw Pakistan win their maiden Asia Cup title. Before the tournament had begun, the Sri Lankans were considered title favourites by virtue of their excellent record in the past one year. It took Pakistan just two matches to change that opinion, so focussed have their talented players been.

And keeping up with the pre-final hype, Pakistan first batted the Sri Lankans out of the game and then got rid of the Lankan top order to dictate the course of the match. Marvan Atapattu did his best to alter that course in his team’s favour by scoring a hundred, but he and the late order were left too much to do too soon and despite taking the match to the death, the Sri Lankans succumbed.

The initial Sri Lankan response to the huge Pakistan total was one of panic. The batting order was changed in the hope that the first 15 overs would produce a run-riot. All that the re-elevation of Romesh Kaluwitharana and Chaminda Vaas being sent one-drop did, was to make these two wickets fall early enough to scuttle any hopes of a Lankan victory.

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If Moin Khan’s unorthodox strikes — scoop the ball pitched outside the off stump over fine-leg’s head or use his powerful wrists to whip the ball over the long-leg fence — unnerved the Sri Lankans, their own shoddy fielding let them down badly.

Saeed Anwar, who smoothened Pakistan’s foundations after a couple of hiccups, was dropped twice. So was Moin. They could not contain even the hobbling Inzamam-ul-Haq, who batted with a runner in the last 10 overs and was finding it very difficult to make use of his feet.

It did seem at the end of the 40th over that the Sri Lankans just may be able to contain Pakistan to reasonable proportions, their score being 173 for 4 at that stage. But then, the scoreboard galloped at break-neck speed in the last 10 overs, for a huge 107 runs. In the last five overs especially, Moin simply let himself go, in the process scoring 72 runs.

He struck the ball with gleeful abandon and ran between the wickets like a 100-metre sprinter to put the Sri Lankan fielders in complete disarray. Dave Whatmore’s tongue-lashing, it seemed, had a negative influence on the team. Whenever a chance came their way, it went abegging.

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Faced with a formidable score, the Sri Lankans reshuffled their batting order. Arvinda de Silva was held back. But it is not easy to be attacking bowlers of Wasim Akram’s calibre indiscriminately, or trying to take risks with someone as accurate and nippy as Mohammad Akram.

The gamble failed and once Sanath Jayasuriya’s aggressive intent failed to transform into a flick to legside and gave M Akram a return catch, the burden of making a match of a lost cause fell on the fourth wicket pair of de Silva and Atapattu.

The pair tried to work their way through the labyrinth of many traps but the pressure of a mounting asking rate — it had crossed 6 per over with 25 overs to go — was getting difficult to handle. The off spin of Arshad Khan tempted De Silva to put the ball over the mid-wicket fence. It ended up in the hands of Yousaf Youhana.

All the rest of the fielders made a beeline towards Youhana, signifying the importance of the wicket for the team. But it was not all over for Sri Lanka.Atapattu had not given up. He battled gamely in the company of Russell Arnold first, and Upal Chandana later, but in the death, Wasim Akram re-emphasised his class as a bowler, taking two wickets and finishing off Lanka’s late surge.

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The Bangabandhu Stadium crowd had been denied a very close finish to a tournament which had begun with some uncertainity — about what their response would be to the increasingly tainted image the game has acquired over the last couple of months. The full house here meant that Bangladesh still considers the game above reproach even if the players and the adminstrators may not be.

SCOREBOARD

PAKISTAN

S. Anwar c Muralitharan b Jayasuriya 82 (6 fours, 1 six, 115)
I. Nazir c and b Zoysa 3 (12b)
S. Afridi c Arnold b Zoysa 22 (27b, 2 fours)
Y. Youhana c and b Chandana 25 ( 54b)
Inzamam-ul-Haq not out 72 (5 fours, 1 six, 66b)
M. Khan not out 56 (3 fours, 4 sixes, 31b)
Extras (nb-5, w-2, lb-7, b-3) 17
Total (for 4 wkts) 277
Fall of wickets:1-17 (Anwar), 2-56 (Afridi), 3-124 (Youhana), 4-173 (Anwar)

Bowling: C. Vaas 8-0-52-0; N. Zoysa 8-1-44-2; K. Weeraratne 6-0-23-0; M. Muralitharan 10-0-42-0; U. Chandana 10-0-43-1; S. Jayasuriya 8-0-63-1

SRI LANKA

S. Jayasuriya c and b M. Akram 22 (3 fours, 25b)
R. Kaluwitharana run out 0 (0b)
C. Vaas b M. Akram 10 (1 four, 14b)
M. Atapattu c Moin b Wasim 100 (10 fours, 124b)
A. de Silva c Youhana b Khan 23 (43b)
R. Arnold c Afridi b Khan 41 (4 fours, 2 sixes, 44b)
M. Jayawardene run out 0 (1b)
U. Chandana b Akram 24 (2 fours, 1 six, 16b)
N. Zoysa not out 6 ( 16b, 1 four)
M. Muralitharan c sub (Malik) b Razaaq 0 (2b)
K. Weeraratne absent hurt
Extras (lb-8, w-5, nb-2) 15
Total 238 in 45.2 overs
Fall of wickets:1-6 (Kaluwitharana), 2-21 (Vaas), 3-46 (Jayasuria), 4-117 (de Silva), 5-196 (Arnold), 6-202 (Jayawardene), 7-220 (Atapattu), 8-237 (Chandana), 9-238 (Muralitharan)

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Bowling: W. Akram 8-0-38-2; M. Akram 8-0-50-2; A. Razzaq 7.2-0-40-1; A. Mehmood 10-0-40-0; A. Khan 10-0-42-2; S. Afridi 2-0-20-0

RESULT: Pakistan won by 40 runs
MAN OF THE MATCH: Moin Khan
MAN OF THE SERIES: Yousaf Youhana

Moin Khan equalled the world record of most dismissals in one-day internationals when he caught Marvan Atapattu off Wasim Akram. He equalled Australian Ian Healy’s record of 234 dismissals.

Moin has played 176 matches, taken 174 catches and 60 stumpings. Healy played 168 matches, took 195 catches and made 39 stumpings.

— S. Pervez Qaiser