Leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga on Friday led Sri Lanka's bowling charge to set up a comfortable five-wicket win over Pakistan
10 September, 2022
PHOTO: AFP
Pakistan batters were left clueless in front of the brilliant bowling by Sri Lankan spinners in the middle-overs of the dead rubber clash at Dubai.
Leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga on Friday led Sri Lanka's bowling charge to set up a comfortable five-wicket win over Pakistan as he spun his web around the opposition batters to return figures of 3-21, which eventually led to Pakistan being bowled out for 121 in 19.1 overs.
Hasaranga clean bowled Babar Azam and finished his spell with two successive wickets of Iftikhar Ahmed and Asif Ali to flatten the opposition batting, which could not survive the allotted 20 overs. Spinner Maheesh Theekshana and debutant pacer Pramod Madushan took two wickets each as Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Skipper Babar Azam termed the game as a good learning experience but former Pakistan captain Salman Butt slammed the side's batting approach versus Hasaranga.
“The way Pakistan’s batters got out was quite disappointing. All their lives they have played tape ball cricket. How can they not read Hasaranga’s variations from the finger?" said Butt on his YouTube channel.
"Straight finger means the ball will spin away and behind the hand means the delivery will come in. Iftikhar Ahmed could not read a googly in an earlier match. In this game as well, he couldn’t pick the variation," he added.
“The kind of shots Pakistan batters played, I won’t call it a bad day for them. I would describe it as very poor shot selection. We could have said it was a bad day for them if they had some poor luck. However, batters were getting dismissed due to their inability to pick bowlers’ variations."
Butt thinks Pakistan has performed in patches with no healthy performance.
“I am sure Pakistan will be a different team in the final. They will come in with a different attitude. Having said that, there are serious batting concerns. Pakistan have won games by showing brilliance in patches. There has been no wholesome performance," Butt explained.
