Lankan Lions hammered 170 on board, Bhanuka Rajapaksa anchors throughout
Bhanuka Rajapaksa smashes an unbeaten 45 ball 71 to take Sri Lanka at 170/6 in their 20 overs. The Lankan Lions were almost on the verge of a fallout as they were 58/5 at a stage. However, apart from Rajapaksa, Dhanajaya de Silva (28) and Wanindu Hasaranga (36) also made contributions with the bat which helped the five-time Asian champs to a respectable total.
On the other hand, Pakistan’s Haris Rauf was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets to his name, while Naseem Shah, Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan scalped one wicket each.
Pakistan had won the toss and elected to bowl. For Pakistan, Shadab Khan and Naseem Shah have been named back in the Playing 11. Whereas Sri Lanka went with the same squad. In the group stage of the tournament, both the teams lost one game out of three and in the Super 4 stage, they made their way into the finals after defeating India and Afghanistan respectively.
Moreover, Sri Lanka had thrashed Pakistan by five wickets in the last Super 4 match. It will be interesting to see that which side will crunch over the other to claim the ultimate title.
Hence, an interesting start for Pakistan as they claimed 9 runs without any legal ball bowled, No Ball, Wide Ball, Wide Ball, 5 Wide Ball, Wide Ball as Dilshan Madhushanka started off the second innings as a nightmare for the Sri Lankans.