PAKISTAN v SRI LANKA

At Sharjah, April 11. Sri Lanka won by five wickets. Toss: Sri Lanka. International debuts: Javed Qadir, Mahmood Hamid.

Against all expectations, Sri Lanka fought through to the final ahead of Pakistan. Victory alone was not enough: they had to keep Pakistan below 212 and win in 33 overs or less to beat them on run-rate. (They rejected the alternative of batting first and scoring nearly 300 to overtake India.) With his third ball, Vaas removed Aamir Sohail and, with Ramanayake following up, Pakistan were 38 for five by the 19th over. Though Inzamam-ul-Haq scored an heroic 73, the next-biggest contribution was 17 - from wides. Kaluwitharana, flown in because Dunusinghe was ill, made five dismissals.

Sri Lanka now needed 179 at 5.45 an over. Jayasuriya blazed away with 30 from 15 balls, to set the pace for the later strokeplayers, while Mahanama acted as anchor; 13 balls inside the deadline Tillekeratne triumphantly struck Arshad Khan for six. In Pakistan's mitigation, they had lost Moin Khan to chicken-pox and Aqib Javed to injury, reducing the team to five established players.

Man of the Match: S. T. Jayasuriya.