Pakistan thrash Sri Lanka to clinch Emerging Trophy

Pakistan eased to a convincing six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the final of the Videocon Asian Emerging Team Trophy at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. In a low-scoring contest, Sri Lanka were bundled out for 105 in 35.5 overs and Pakistan knocked off the runs with 22 overs to spare.

Pakistan had lost to Sri Lanka in the league game and went into the final as the underdog, but turned it around with a superb bowling performance. Both teams went into the final with four seamers, but Pakistan won a vital toss and made full use of a pitch that afforded bounce and movement. Their seam attack claimed all ten Sri Lankan wickets, with Junaid Zia picking up 4 for 25 off eight overs. Junaid went on to bag three individual awards: Man of the Match, Player of the Series and Pakistan's Best Player. He finished with 11 wickets in the tournament.

Yasir Ali, Mohamed Khalil, the left-arm seamer who was playing his first match, and Yasir Arafat shared the remaining six wickets as Sri Lanka's much-vaunted batting struggled to cope with the bounce and seam. Sri Lanka's total could have been even smaller had the Pakistani bowlers not sent down 23 wides. Extras contributed 30 runs to Sri Lanka's total, second only to Thilina Kandamby's knock of 35 off 72 balls.

From the first ball it was a battle for survival for the Sri Lankan batsmen. The first boundary off the bat did not come until the 26th over, when Kandamby on-drove for four. At 25 he was dropped at slip by Usman Tariq off Junaid, and after a brief stoppage for rain, he pulled left-arm spinner Qaiser Abbas for six over midwicket. The only other boundary of the innings came when Nuwan Kulasekara hit Junaid off his legs in the 30th over.

When Pakistan batted, two partnerships of 40 runs involving Babar Nadeem sealed the victory. Nadeem played the anchor's knock, making 33 off 70 balls and was out when only four runs were needed for victory.

The Sri Lankan bowlers were also guilty of indiscipline, bowling 19 wides. With the pitch gradually losing its venom, batting became much easier, although the bowlers were still able to extract bounce.

Champaka Ramanayake, the Sri Lankan coach, blamed the pitch, but also had encouraging words for Pakistan's bowlers. "The pitches throughout the tournament had a lot of moisture because they were covered constantly due to the prevailing bad weather and a result it helped the seamers a lot. The toss played a vital role and had we won it, we would have sent Pakistan to bat first.

"All what we required was to bat out the fifty overs and we would have had a total to bowl at. But unfortunately we couldn't get any big partnerships going. They bowled some very good balls and overall they bowled very well."

Naveed Anjum, the Pakistan coach, also agreed that the toss played a vital role in deciding the result of the match. "Had we lost the toss we would have suffered the same fate as Sri Lanka. It was a struggle for the batsmen against the seaming ball especially in the first 10-15 overs.

Speaking of Junaid Zia, Anjum said that he had increased his pace by at least half a yard since making his one-day international debut against Bangladesh last month. "He will serve Pakistan for some time."