Millions of Pakistani cricket fans celebrated aloud when their favorite star shined at the Colombo, Sri Lanka. Pakistan piped Sri Lanka in their home soil in with a margin of 11 run in a very close fought contest. And after this victory, all of sudden, people related to cricket World Cup have changed their view on Pakistani cricket team, which was treated as one of the weaker teams before the starting of the cricketing extravaganza.
Pakistan cricket team has been suffered many criticism in last one year from people around the globe. Interestingly, the criticism, they suffered is not for their on field action but for their off field action. Three of the most talented cricketing stars are enduring a ban after found guilty in a match fixing scandal, last year.
Before the starting of the world cup, none of the experts of the game as giving any hope to the Pakistan team, but the Pakistani cricket team has proved them wrong by clinching two wins back to back. No one can predict the performance of Pakistani cricket team and they can torment the beat team of the world on their day; they have proved it once again.
Pakistan cricket team outplayed the favorite Sri Lankan team at the Premadasha stadium at the capital of Sri Lanka in front of more than thirty five thousand spectator. This victory came for the Pakistani cricket team straight after a huge 205 run victory over the weak Kenya.
Behind this famous win over Sri Lanka, there was a big hand of the senior players of the Pakistani cricket team. Misbah ul Haq continued his run feast with another splendid unbeaten knock of 83. Because of this great knock from the vice captain, Pakistan managed to muster two hundred seventy seven for seven wicket, batting first against the host team.
As far as bowling is concern, the golden boy Afridi sent five Sri Lankan batsmen to the pavilion. Afridi achieved the feet of five wicket haul, straight after scalping four wickets in the match against Kenya. Apart from Afridi, the old hunk Akhtar dismissed two Sri Lankan batsmen including the Mahela Jayawerdhana. The effort of these two bowlers helped Pakistan most in restricting the Sri Lankan team 12 runs short from the magical figure of 278. This victory also helped Pakistan to maintain a flawless record against Sri Lanka in the world cup outings. Including this match, Pakistan faced off Sri Lankan Challenge seven times successfully in the world cup.
It is well that Pakistan won the match, but the performance of the Pakistani player on the field was quite below the average. Kamran Akmal missed an easy stumping chance to give a life to the Sri Lankan captain Kumara Sangakkara. Apart from that, Abdur Rehman missed a lollypop to dismiss the Sri Lankan middle order batsman Chamara Silva. There were some other incidents also there, which showed that there is a lot of room left to improve as far as the fielding of the Pakistani team is concern.
