It was a day to forget for the Pakistani fast bowlers in Hyderabad as the Sri Lanka batters clobbered them for 344 runs. Only some wickets in the death overs helped them pull things back, otherwise, it could have been even worse for Pakistan.
Centuries from Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama propelled Sri Lanka’s total to 344. For Pakistan, even though Hasan Ali took 4 wickets and made dents, he leaked 71 runs in his quota of 10 overs and was the most expensive Pakistani bowler on show today.
Shaheen Afridi had the worst economy of six Pakistani bowlers that were used today. Shaheen returned with figures of 1/66 in 9 overs.
Haris Rauf bowled 9 wicketless overs and got his two wickets only in the last over of Sri Lanka’s innings – Rauf conceded 64 runs in his 10 overs. All three Pakistani fast bowlers – a bowling attack on which their fans often take pride on, and some even hail their pace attack as the best in the world – leaked over 6 runs an over and two of them went for over 7 runs an over.
On the spin front, Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz, too, were taken to cleaners and both conceded at 6.9 runs an over each in their 8 and 9 overs respectively. Iftikhar Ahmed, the part-time off-spinner, offered some control by conceding 22 runs in 4 overs.
Pakistan’s bowling attack was trolled heavily on social media with funny memes:
Teams:
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis(w), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka(c), Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana, Dilshan Madushanka
Pakistan (Playing XI): Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
