Pakistan's colorless bowling make Sri Lanka happy

The match started at 2.00 pm local time for the ground being unfit to play on account of overnight rain. The pitch said to be helpful to batsmen proved absolutely so, because Sri Lanka batting first got an excellent start.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu opened the innings and continued to give the Pakistani bowlers a sweet punishment, raising Sri Lanka's total to 50 in 21 overs.

The two batsmen continued facing the Pakistani bowlers with immense confidence. They were playing a safe and steady game, collecting runs at a reasonable pace. The luck was also with them because both of them survived a chance. In 40 overs, they hoisted 100 of Sri Lanka's innings. Sanath Jayasuriya (58) and Atapattu (40) were well dug at the crease. The bowlers looked off color, creating no serious impact on the batsmen.

After completing his half-century Jayasuriya opened up to hit some delightful strokes which included an exciting straight six to Mushtaq Ahmed, followed by a four in the same region on the next ball. What went against Pakistan was that neither the pitch was helping the bowlers nor the fielding was as good as in the previous matches. Two vital catches were dropped.

Being two down in the series, Sri Lanka was following the correct strategy of playing a long innings and collecting runs through a safe and steady posture. Apart from singles and twos they punished the loose deliveries to the boundary line. In 50 overs, Sri Lanka piled up 135 runs with Atapattu having completed an excellent 50 and Jayasuriya playing the real captain's innings with 80 runs to his credit.

The light having faded, the umpires ended the day's play after 53.2 overs. Sri Lanka had posted an excellent score of 140 for no loss. The stalwarts at the crease who gave Sri Lanka a marvelous start were Jayasuriya (82) and Atapattu (50). They had almost reduced the Pakistani bowling to naught.