Abu Dhabi: Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by 5 wickets in the Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup T20 tournament to earn 2 important points and keep their hopes of reaching the final alive. Pakistan achieved Sri Lanka’s target of 134 runs in 18 overs for the loss of 5 wickets.
Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha won the toss and invited Sri Lanka to bat first. Sri Lanka scored 133 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Kamindu Mendis was the standout with 50 runs. For Pakistan, Shaheen Afridi got 3 wickets, Haris Rauf and Hussain Talat got 2 wickets each. Abrar Ahmed dismissed one player.
Chasing the target, the Green Shirts initially faced difficulties, with 5 players returning to the pavilion for a combined score of 80 runs. Sahibzada Farhan scored 24, Fakhar Zaman 17, Saim Ayub 2, captain Salman Ali Agha scored 5 runs and Muhammad Haris scored 13 runs. In such a situation, Muhammad Nawaz and Hussain Talat batted responsibly and gave Pakistan a crucial win to keep their hopes of reaching the final alive. Muhammad Nawaz played an unbeaten innings of 38 and Hussain Talat 32 runs to give Pakistan the victory.
The top 2 teams from the Super 4 stage have to qualify for the final. Each team has to play 3 matches. Looking at the points table, India is in first place with 2 points after playing one match, while Bangladesh is in second place with 2 points after playing one match and winning. Pakistan is third with 2 points after winning one of their 2 matches, while Sri Lanka is in last position after losing 2 consecutive matches.
