RAWALPINDI: Pakistan has defeated Sri Lanka in the ODI series after getting a decisive lead in the series in the 2nd match at the Pindi Stadium.
The men in green get a comprehensive 8 wickets-win over the visitor in the second one day in Rawalpindi. Sri Lanka had scored 288 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in the allotted 50 overs.
Janith Liyanage made 54 runs and Kusal Mendis was the other top scorer with 44 runs. Samarawickrama too added 42 runs.
Abrar Ahmed and Haris Rauf picked up three wickets each. Pakistan chased down the score for the lost of only two wickets with 10 balls to spare.
The highlight of the match was a sublime ton by Babar Azam who had been waiting to break the shell for two and half long years.
The Pakistan’s star player made an unbeaten 102 runs. Fakhar Zaman, earlier, played a fine knock of 78 runs on 93 balls.
Saim Ayub too, looked promising with his 25 balls 33 runs. Mohammad Rizwan was the other player who made a half century and gave a significant support to Babar Azam.
Babar Azam has scored this century after June 2023, when he last scored a hundred in the Asia Cup against Nepal.
He took 83 innings to score an international hundred, interestingly, similar to Virat Kohli, who too had passed through a tough phase for nearly three years.
He now shares the record of highest number centuries in ODI from Pakistan along with Saeed Anwar.
But he is now fastest to score 20 ODI centuries from Pakistan. The great Saeed Anwar had played 244 matches for his 20 ODI centuries.
However, Babar Azam had only played 136 ODIs so far. Moreover, this was fourth successive series win for Pakistan in ODIs against Sri Lanka.
The final ODI of the Series will be played on Sunday, 16th November at the same venue. Pakistan had beaten Sri Lanka in the first ODI with a narrow margin of 6 runs.
