The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Emphatic victory for Sri Lanka

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Monday, Oct 25, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Emphatic victory for Sri Lanka

FAISALABAD, OCT. 24. Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath claimed four wickets on Sunday as Sri Lanka completed an emphatic 201-run first Test win over Pakistan, midway into the afternoon session on the fifth day.

Herath perfectly filled the place of Sri Lanka's injured star spinner Muttiah Muralitharan as Pakistan was dismissed for 216 when last man Shoaib Akhtar was stumped by Kaluwitharana. Herath finished the match with seven wickets for 145 runs.

``It was a fantastic win in the sense that we fought back after our first innings,'' said Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu, who failed to score in the Test.

``If it happens everytime I don't think I will be there, but I would love to see Sri Lanka win,'' he said of his two ducks.

Huge target

Sri Lanka set a huge 418-run target for Pakistan after amassing 438 in its second innings, highlighted by Sanath Jayasuriya's magnificent 253 on Saturday. Pakistan got a 21-run first innings lead after it made 264 in reply to Sri Lanka's first innings total of 243.

``After what looked like a collapse after winning the toss (at 9 for 3), we scored 243, which isn't a big score,'' Atapattu said. ``But from there the guys fought back to achieve this.

``It was a good wicket,'' he added. ``Going by the statistics, 280 was the average score at this ground and nobody has chased 250 in the fourth innings so we knew about it and we planned accordingly.''

Shoaib Malik made a career-best 59 but got little support from the other end as Herath bowled consistently with a field of four close-in fielders around the Pakistan batsmen.

Malik brought up his half century with three successive boundaries off Dilhara Fernando (four for 77), who had broken the Pakistan top batting order in the second innings with four wickets on Saturday evening. Mohammad Sami, nursing a groin muscle injury, was run out for five before Akhtar delayed the inevitable with a quick 12, which included a six off Herath.

It was Sri Lanka's sixth Test win at Pakistan in the last nine Test matches. — AP

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