The Pakistan cricket team made it two wins in a row and defeated Sri Lanka by three wickets in a nail-biting encounter at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. By doing so, they qualify for the semifinals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. After winning the toss, Pakistan opted to field first and did extremely well to restrict Sri Lanka to 236 in 49.2 overs.
The fast bowlers were on song and took the majority of wickets with Junaid Khan picking up three wickets and Mohammad Amir and Hassan Ali taking two each.
The Pakistani batsmen got off to a perfect start with an opening stand of 74 runs. However, they crumbled in the middle overs and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. At one point, it looked like Sri Lanka would pull off an unlikely victory, but captain Sarfraz Ahmed and Amir put on a vital, unbeaten 8th wicket partnership of 75 runs to take Pakistan to the semifinals of the tournament.
Sri Lanka would have had the game in the bag in the 39th over but Thisara Perera put down a sitter to deny Lasith Malinga Sarfraz’s wicket.
Sarfraz on his man of the match performance
First of all, thanks to the Almighty. I can't believe it. Thanks to Amir, he played really well. I jus told him to play his game and not to worry about the score. That if we took it to the 40th over we would win. Drop catches are part of the game. Allah helped us and that's why Pakistan won today.
Angelo Mathews on Sri Lanka’s loss
A see-saw kind of a game. Credit should go to Pakistan. They held their nerves and are deserved winners. it was a bit of a funny wicket. We hadn't got the runs on the board but we knew we could defend this. And the bowlers did their job, but we didn't hold on to our catches. Proud of the boys. Even though we only had 236 to defend, they gave it their all. Unfortunately, we missed a few chances. In a big tournament like this, they fought hard an inexperienced team. I'm proud of them.
Here is how the cricketing fraternity reacted to the match:
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