Live Cricket Score of Sri Lanka vs Pakistan, 1st T20I at Colombo

Shoaib Malik and Umar Akmal continued to milk the bowling with ease. The 15th over bowled by Angelo Mathews appeared to have been all about singles and twos but when Malik succeeded in getting an outside edge past the short third-man fielder for four, the scoreboard reflected that 11 runs had come off the over.

The unquestioned talent of Umar Akmal was on display in the next over when he pulled away a Binura Fernando delivery for six and when the bowler adjusted his length and bowled a touch fuller, he went over long-on for another maximum. Binura is paying for his lack of pace.

There were to be no heroics from Thissara Perera this time as the Sri Lankan all-rounder fell to a sharp bouncer from Anwar Ali for a four-ball two effectively ending Sri Lanka's hopes of a pulling off a surprise win. Pakistan have been ruthlessly effective this tour. And this has been another fabulous performance from them. Only the finishing touches left in this one.

Since 2006, Pakistan had not won a bilateral series in Sri Lanka, be it in Test or ODIs. However, Misbah-ul-Haq and Azhar Ali's sides ended the barren run with convincing series victories in the three-match Test series and the five-match ODI series. Now, Shahid Afridi's men will look to extend the good run when they take on Sri Lanka in a two-match T20I series starting on 30th July. Meanwhile, the hosts, the defending T20 champions, now with a side brimming with youngsters, will be hoping to prevent Pakistan from making it three trophies in a row.

"Batsman are going to like it. It is going to be all about the runs. There is a good covering of grass. The bounce will be true. Win the toss and bat first, try and get a score around 170-180. It should stay like that for the entire 40 overs. We are in for a thriller," says Russell Arnold.

Shahid Afridi won the toss in the first T20I and elected to bat. He reckoned that a total of 175 would be tough to chase down. Unlike the Sri Lankan side, Pakistan's team features some familiar names. Shahid Afridi is of course the captain while Umar Akmal and Sohail Tanvir also are picked. Meanwhile, in a surprise move the team management have decided to leave out Sarfraz Ahmed. Big call.

Sri Lanka meanwhile have handed a debut to the exciting leg spinner Vandersay.

Teams:

Sri Lanka:

Kusal Perera(w), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Angelo Mathews, Chaturanga de Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Kithuruwan Vithanage, Milinda Siriwardana, Thisara Perera, Jeffrey Vandersay, Lasith Malinga(c), Binura Fernando

Pakistan:

Ahmed Shehzad, Mukhtar Ahmed, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Mohammad Rizwan(w), Shahid Afridi(c), Sohail Tanvir, Anwar Ali, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Irfan

- Binura Fernando, left-arm fast to open the bowling with Ahmed Shehzad nad Mukhtar Ahmed opening.

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