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The Sri Lankan chase

Sri Lanka's one-day performance of recent times hasn't been calculated to enthuse supporters of the flamboyant islanders. Planning a chase is their forte and an attainable target, of the kind Pakistan set them in this outing, seemed ideal for the World Cup holders to get their feet wet in this tournament, to get some oil into the machinery and get the gears meshing properly.

Given that Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana are both out through injury, they weren't likely to get their usual flamboyant start. However, with an ask rate, at the outset, of under 5 an over, they didn't need one -- slow and steady would do it and steady accumulation is something they do very well.

They did have an early setback, though, when Marvan Atapattu found himself cramped by a lifter from Shoaib Akthar -- the pace on the bouncer had him fending, the ball crashing into the bat handle, jamming his hand against it and forcing him to retire, hurt, with a badly swollen index finger. A rather bad blow, at a time when Atapattu seemed to be middling them quite nicely.

Avishka Gunawardene and Mahela Jaywardene weathered that setback quite nicely, though, and took Lanka to 47/0 in the first 10 -- not up there with the Pakistan run rate at that point but then, it didn't need to be.

And when Aravinda D'Silva joined Jayawardene after Akram -- who was to leave an indelible imprint on this innings -- took a stunning catch to get rid of Gunawardene, Lanka seemed to be back to playing the planned chase. Aravinda in particular was reminiscent of the batsman who, during the 1996 World Cup, had made himself the one to watch, with his cool head, clinical strokeplay and superb pacing of his innings.

At the other end, Jayawardene settled down into a nice, controlled knock. He has a compact defence and a good range of strokes, allied to a strong temperament, and easily held his own in a 100-plus partnership for the second wicket. Lanka were always behind the Pakistan run rate -- 98/1 in 20, 113/1 in 25, 137/1 in 30. But at that point, the batting side was just 109 short, with 20 overs and 9 wickets in hand.

You'd back most top teams to get there, wouldn't you? More so Lanka, who excel in batting second? Perhaps it is indicative of what has happened to the World Cup holders in recent times, that just when they seemed to have it covered was when they completely lost the plot and went down to defeat.

Shoaib Akthar has a very good slower ball, well disguised and bowled with no perceptible change of action. He used it quite well during the Test series, without however getting any rewards. The same ploy, used in the ODI arena, did the job, getting Jayawardene playing early, taking it on the rise and hitting it high off the bat, straight to Akram at cover.

Ranatunga and Aravinda have scripted many superb chases for Lanka, but an encore wasn't on here as Shahid Afridi, going around the wicket to the Lankan captain, produced a leg break that Ranatunga tried to turn behind square. The batsman ended up shutting the bat face on it too early, to get the leading edge and put Akram -- the ball by this point was following the Pakistan skipper like a pet poodle -- at midwicket back in business.

Even at this point, Lanka had no seeming need to panic. Tillekeratne was looking good, and Aravinda was very well set and cruising along in ominous fashion. If the latter had one suspect area, it was in his running -- his recent injury appears to have left a hangover in that area, the Lankan vice captain being noticeably slow between wickets. And this weakness, in an otherwise impenetrable defense, saw his demise when Tillekeratne played one out on the on side, a touch too close to Moin Khan. Aravinda came charging down, but Tillekeratne was never going for that single. Aravinda was a lifetime too late to brake and turn, and Moin had his gloves off and the ball across to the non-striker's end to effectively nail the Lankans to the garage door.

Upul Chandana is a good strokeplayer -- but given the position at that point in time, he needed to look for the single, give Tillekeratne -- who by then was playing Saqlain very well -- a go, and wait for his own chance to cut loose. Instead, the batsman, to the first ball he got from the offspinner, came charging down the wicket, aiming a huge hit that carried the ball to sweeper cover. Youhanna got the ball nicely in both hands, spilt it, then grabbed it at the second attempt.

From then on, it was all Akram. In the 48th over, a perfect yorker on line of middle stump cleaned up Ruwan Kalpage, the bowler giving away a mere 4 runs, and taking a wicket, in that over. That left the Lankans 16 to get from two overs --and Akram seemed to be taking a huge gamble bringing on Shoaib Akthar, rather than Saqlain, for the penultimate over -- the ball, you would theorise, would travel faster off the bat when Akthar was bowling.

Akthar's first ball was angled way wide of leg. Tillekeratne had made room to leg to hit to off -- thus saving the bowler from being wide-d. He however missed with his heave, Moin collected -- and again, relayed the ball to the bowler's end where Hathurasinghe, unused to the pressure of the chase, was way out of his ground backing up for a non-existent run.

Chaminda Vaas has been here before -- but it was as if he was, temporarily, amnesiac. Akthar produced a straight, fast, delivery on off and the batsman, rather than hit through the line, went for a wild swipe to leg, missing completely to have his off peg uprooted.

That brought Marvan Atapattu to the crease, picking up where he had retired hurt, and Akram for the last over of the match, with 11 needed. Akram, who makes a speciality of the swinging yorkers at the death, produced one that swung in from just outside off, on a full length, to crash into the base of off stump on the full. And the very next ball was another picture perfect yorker, bang on middle stump and way too good for Wickremasinghe -- which means that yet again, Akram is on a hat-trick, and again, he has hauled Pakistan through to another win, this time by nine runs.

Match referee Cammie Smith got it right when he cited Akram for the MoM award -- not only for the surgical perfection of his late strikes, but for leadership that ensured that his side held its nerve and, despite a bad performance with the bat, nosed ahead at the death.

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