NEW DELHI: Pakistan beat a powerful Sri Lankan side on Saturday for their second World Cup win, sending out an ominous statement of intent to their rivals as Bangalore geared up for the India-England showdown.
A sell-out crowd of 35,000 packed the R. Premadasa stadium in Colombo to witness the much-anticipated Group A clash between 1992 winners Pakistan and 1996 champions Sri Lanka, who both enjoyed convincing opening victories.Pakistan, seeking to keep intact their record of never having lost a World Cup match against Sri Lanka, made a bright start and were indebted to an unbeaten 83 from Test skipper Misbah-ul-Haq and 72 from Younis Khan.Sri Lanka made a good start to their reply but slipped to 96 for four and fell behind the run-rate, finally coming up 11 runs short on 266-9,"That was a big game and the boys all knew how big that game was," said skipper Shahid Afridi, who picked up the man-of-the-match award for his 4-34."I think it's a great message for other teams that we will come harder and harder game by game."Disappointed Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakarra said: "I think we made it a bit difficult for ourselves by losing wickets but we got a good start. We needed a couple of blokes to just kick on and keep batting for a longer time."
A sell-out crowd of 35,000 packed the R. Premadasa stadium in Colombo to witness the much-anticipated Group A clash between 1992 winners Pakistan and 1996 champions Sri Lanka, who both enjoyed convincing opening victories.Pakistan, seeking to keep intact their record of never having lost a World Cup match against Sri Lanka, made a bright start and were indebted to an unbeaten 83 from Test skipper Misbah-ul-Haq and 72 from Younis Khan.Sri Lanka made a good start to their reply but slipped to 96 for four and fell behind the run-rate, finally coming up 11 runs short on 266-9,"That was a big game and the boys all knew how big that game was," said skipper Shahid Afridi, who picked up the man-of-the-match award for his 4-34."I think it's a great message for other teams that we will come harder and harder game by game."Disappointed Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakarra said: "I think we made it a bit difficult for ourselves by losing wickets but we got a good start. We needed a couple of blokes to just kick on and keep batting for a longer time."
