Sri Lanka Bags Asia Cup COLOMBO
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Sri Lanka bags Asia Cup COLOMBO. April 6. Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by five wickets to win the Asia Cup cricket championship here today. After six consecutive defeats at the hands of Pakis- tan in one-day internationals, Sri Lanka, chasing a tar- get of 191 in 45 overs, made 195 for five wickets with 3.4 overs to spare. Sri Lanka had put Pakistan in to bat after winning the toss, and saw it notch up an impressive 191 for nine in the limited-over match. However, the home team seemed confident from the beginning of its innings. Openers Brendon Kuruppu and Roshan Mahanama batted unhurriedly to put on a 40-run stand in 13.3 overs, but there was a change of pace with the partnership of Arjuna Rana- tunge and Aravinda De Silva, who added 97 runs for the fourth wicket in 16.1 overs to pave the way for the Sri Lankan win. Pakistan lost the services of skipper Imran Khan early in the Sri Lankan innings when he limped off the field with a leg injury, leaving it a front-line bowler short. With Imran Khan out of the way, the Sri Lankan batsmen swept into the rest of the Pakistan bowling, with only Wasim Akram, who bowled seven overs for 22 runs able to command any respect from the bats- men. Earlier, Pakistan was struggling in its innings as the local bowlers removed most of the Pakistani fron- tliners cheaply. But a stubborn innings by Pakistan vice-captain Javed Miandad, who figured in three enterprising par- tnerships and notched up a fine 67 with four 4s put Pakistan in a sound position. Abdul Qadir also played well, making 30 runs in only 19 balls with two 6s and a 4 before being caught by Asantha De Mel off Ravi Ratnayeke. Right-arm medium-pacer Kaushik Amalean was the most successful bowler for Sri Lanka, finishing with four for 46 off his allotted nine overs. Pakistan's vice-captain Javed Miandad, who held its innings together with a patient 67 runs was adjudg- ed 'Man-of-the-match', while Sri Lanka's Arjuna Rana- tunge was named 'Man-of-the-Series', a title he also won in the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test matches that ended two weeks ago. The Sri Lanka President, Mr. J. R. Jayewardene, declared April 15 as a National holiday to celebrate the victory. The scores: Pakistan: Mudassar Nazar b De Mel 2; Mohsin Khan (run out) 7; Rameez Raja c Mahanama b Ama- lean 2; Javed Miandad c Ratnayeke b Amalean 67: Imran Khan Ibw b Ratnayeke 2; Salim Malik c and b Anurasiri 23; Mansoor Elahi b Amalean 37; Abdul Qadir c De Mel b Ratnayeke 30; Wasim Akram c Gurusinghe b Amalean 6; Zulqarnain (not out) 1; Extras (lb-4, nb-2, w-8) 14. Total (for nine wkts in 45 overs) 191. Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-10, 3-24, 4-32, 5-72, 6-137. 7-179,8-185,9-191. Sri Lanka bowling: De Mel 9-2-21-1, Amalean 9-1-46-4, Ratnayeke 8-0-50-2, Ranatunge 9-1-27-0, An- urasiri 9-0-24-1, Aravinda De Silva 1-0-19-0. Sri Lanka: Brendon Kuruppu c Malik b Qadir 30; Roshan Mahanama c Qadir b Elahi 21; Asanka Gurusinghe c Zulqarnain b Qadir 4; Arvinda De Silva c (sub) Ahmed b Mudassar 52; Arjuna Ranatunge c Moshin Khan b Qadir 57; Duleep Mendis (not out) 22; Roy Dias (not out) 0; Extras Cb-1, lb-6, w-2) 9. Total (for five wkts. in 42.2 overs) 195. Fall of wickets: 1-40, 2-59,3-64, 4-161, 5-191. Pakistan Bowling: Wasim Akram 7.2-2-22-0, Zakir 6-0-36-0, Elahi 9-0-30-1, Qadir 9-0-32-3, Mudassar 8-0-49-1. Malik 3-0-19-0..