Half-centuries by Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal and a lively spell of bowling from the paceman Aizaz Cheema helped Pakistan to a six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup on yesterday.
Sri Lanka's defeat was their second in a row while Pakistan are now all but guaranteed a place in the final.
Misbah, the captain, and Akmal shared a stand of 152 for the fourth wicket to lead Pakistan safely to their target in 39.5 overs after Cheema claimed four for 43 and Saeed Ajmal three for 27 as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 188.
Pakistan reached their victory target for the loss of four wickets as Akmal (77) and Misbah (72 not out) put in strong performances, although they had to dig deep to recover from 33 for three.
Misbah said: "It was a really good partnership between me and Umar Akmal. I told him to play his normal game, the runs automatically came.
"Cheema was hit for a lot of fours in his first couple of overs. I told him your main weapon is aggression, so bowl with aggression, No point containing batsmen on these pitches, best to take wickets.
"It was important for me to get my confidence back, the England series was not good for me, so this innings is a confidence booster."
Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, said: "Batting first we felt 250-260 would have been a good score, we had a good start, but we lost too many wickets and exposed our lower middle order. I thought the Pakistanis bowled really well.
"They had a much better game than us today."
Cheema provided Pakistan's first breakthrough when Mohammad Hafeez leapt high at extra cover to dismiss Jayawardene for 12, and he claimed his second wicket with a bouncer to Tillakaratne Dilshan which induced a top edge and was gobbled up by Ajmal.
Dinesh Chandimal followed to a fourth-ball duck at the hands of Umar Gul before Saeed Ajmal took the wicket of Upul Tharanga, who struck 57 off 74 balls including four fours. Kumar Sangakkara and Upul Tharanga put up a 96-run fifth-wicket stand but Sri Lanka lost their last six wickets for 27 runs.
India will reach the final if they win against Bangladesh today.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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