Bowlers, Javeria spin Pakistan to win the T20I series 2-1

This was the last match of the 3-match T20I series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The series was level up on 1-1. Pakistan were confident to continue their winning streak and win the series as they did in the ODI series. Sri Lanka was aiming to take revenge and finish with a series win so that they could turn their heads up as they go ahead.

Sri Lanka won the toss & elected to bowl first. Experienced Nahida and Ameen opened the innings for Pakistan. They started off well until Sugandika bowled Nahida on 19 (23). Maroof too followed her as she got out on Sriwardene’s ball followed by the wicket of Ameen in the 11th over. After 13 overs, Pakistan's score was 66/3.

The foundation was set with just the finishing touches in the last overs as the demand left. Javeria Khan and Nida Dar tried their best to do so but didn’t deliver their best as the Sri Lankan bowled continuously in the right areas. Finally, Pakistan managed to post a low score of 113 on the board. Javeria 38(38), Ameen 23(34) and Nida 22(16) were the top scorers for the Pakistan.

Sri Lanka bowlers did their best as Pakistan's wickets fell at a regular interval; restricting Pakistan to score big. Sugandika bagged two crucial wickets for 20 runs, well supported by Ranasinghe's two wickets for 23 runs. Ama Kanchana also bagged a wicket.

To chase down 114 ideally should not be a big deal for Sri Lanka. But their current batting form was the area of the concern. The opening pair of Anushka and Atapattu started the innings but they failed to deliver. D Baig struck on the first ball of the innings as she sent the skipper to the pavilion on a duck. This was not enough for Sri Lanka as they lost two crucial wickets in the form of run outs by substitute Muneeba Ali.

After that, the whole responsibility was on middle order batters and they again failed to deliver. 4 runouts in an innings prove the fact that pressure and hustle let their downfall in the match. Imalka Mendis 25(49) held on the innings from one side but didn't get support from any of the other batters. Not only this, only 2 batters managed to score in double digit. Anushka scored 14 off 15 balls.

Finally, Sri Lanka managed to score only 75 runs. Pakistan won the match by 38 runs and win the series 2-1. Talking about the Pakistan bowling they started off well and continued their momentum throughout the innings. Bismah Maroof was the go-to bowler for Pakistan as she bagged 2 crucial wickets for 14 runs. Sana Mir and Diana Baig also filled their bag with a wicket. Anushka Sanjeewani was the highest run-getter of the series with 159 runs . Sana Mir was the highest wicket-taker bagging 10 wickets in the series. Pakistan completely dominated Sri Lanka. They won the ODI series 3-0 and T20 Series 2-1.

Flash Scores:-

Pakistan 113/6 (Javeria 38, Sugandika 2/20) beat Srilanka 75/8 (Mendis 25, Bismah 2/14) by 38 runs.