da pinnacle： Pakistan, known to be bad chasers, proved everyone wrong byoverhauling Sri Lanka’s stiff 272 comfortably to earn amorale-boosting win by seven wickets in the dress rehearsalfor Sunday’s final of the Khaleej Times Trophy here Fridaybefore the
Rehan Siddiqui03-Nov-2001Pakistan, known to be bad chasers, proved everyone wrong byoverhauling Sri Lanka’s stiff 272 comfortably to earn amorale-boosting win by seven wickets in the dress rehearsalfor Sunday’s final of the Khaleej Times Trophy here Fridaybefore the biggest crowd of the competition at the SharjahStadium.And the men who made the task look so simple were rookieopener Naved Latif, playing his second one-dayer and thecool as cucumber customer, big man Inzamam-ul-Haq. Theyoungster was later named Man-of-the-Match.Both hammered centuries in their massive third wicket standof 219 after Pakistan had lost Shahid Afridi (11) and YousufYouhana (11) with the total 41. Naved reached his maidenhundred off 130 balls with eight fours and a six whileInzamam needed only 111 deliveries and hit 10 fours.When Naved eventually holed out to Prabath Nissanka on thedeep mid-wicket boundary Pakistan required only 12 runs foran emphatic victory. He faced 141 deliveries for his 113that contained nine fours and one six.Inzamam, during his innings, became the highest scorer atthis venue overtaking his teammate Saeed Anwar while endingup with an unbeaten 118. He slammed two sixes and ten fours.Sri Lanka sorely Muttiah Muralitharan their prime strikebowler. He might have made some difference and the islandersalso had a poor match in the field. They put down threesimple sitters which proved expensive in the end.Inzamam was dropped by Muralitharan when 69 and Naved wasmissed twice once by Russel Arnold off his own bowling andwicket keeper Kumar Sangakkara, who had replaced RomeshKaluwitharana, missed an easy catch behind the stumps.Earlier, Mahela Jayawardena’s elegant 88 off 83 balls thatcontained one six and six fours provided Sri Lankan the bigenough total Sanath Jayasuriya won the toss and elected tobat first in a match of no consequence.Given a solid start of 95 by Jayasuriya (36) and AvishkaGunawardena (57), the classy Jayawardena – certainly thebest Sri Lankan batsman – carted Pakistan’s wayward attackto all corners of the ground with a series of excitingstrokes.Jayawardena shared two profitable partnerships. First he wasinvolved in a stand worth 55 for the third wicket withGunawardena and latter 66 for the fourth with in alliancewith Russel Arnold.He was eventually got out going for a big hit in the closingovers off Shoaib Akhtar, the best of Pakistan’s modestattack minus Wasim Akram, who was given a rest. Thecontroversial pacer finished with the figures of three for45 from 10 overs.