Cricket: Thushara And Kapugedera Lead Sri Lanka To Victory

Thushara And Kapugedera Lead Sri Lanka To Victory

Chamara Kapugedera hits out during his unbeaten half-century.

©REUTERS/Vivek Prakash (SRI LANKA SPORT CRICKET) Picture Supplied by Action Images

Sri Lanka 169-4 (Kapugedera 67no) beat
Pakistan 168 (Mohd. Aamer 24no, Thushara 3-33) by six wickets
Scorecard
Second One-Day International, Dambulla

Thilan Thushara snapped up three wickets and Chamara Kapugedera scored a half-century as Sri Lanka went 2-0 up in their One-Day International series against Pakistan by winning the second match by six wickets in Dambulla.

Pakistan's batting woes continued as they were bowled out for 168 with number ten Mohammad Aamer top scoring with an unbeaten 24 and that came despite the decision to recall Nasir Jamshed, who registered a golden duck, and hand a debut to Umar Akmal, who scored 18 in 28 balls.

Thushara returned three for 33 in nine overs, dismissing Umar's brother Kamran for 13, Shoaib Malik for a four-ball duck and then Fawad Alam for ten.

Captain Younus Khan scored a painstaking 23 in 73 balls before he became the first of two batsmen to fall to Muttiah Muralitharan, the other being Shahid Afridi, dismissed for seven.

Abdul Razzaq (17) and Umar Gul (14) chipped in as best they could while Aamer faced 32 balls and hit three fours but such contributions do not win international cricket matches.

Kapugedera, who scored a century in a warm-up match against the Pakistanis, showed how it should be done, closing unbeaten on 67 in 97 balls after Sri Lanka had slipped to 74 for four in reply.

He added an unbroken stand of 95 with Thilan Samaraweera, who mae 38 in 69 balls.

Upul Tharanga (10), Sanath Jayasuriya (30), Kumar Sangakkara (2), and Mahela Jayawardene (12) were the batsmen who fell for Sri Lanka with Aamer, Razzaq and Afridi picking up a wicket apiece.

Kapugedera hit eight fours and a six to leave Sri Lanka needing one more win in the three remaining matches to clinch the series, which continues in Dambulla on 3rd August.

© Cricket World 2009

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