WANINDU Hasaranga brought in the wow factor that endears him to fans and did what was expected of him – run through the middle-order – to help his side record a confidence-boosting win ahead of the most-anticipated final tomorrow.

The 25-year-old leg-spinner picked up three crucial wickets and hit the winning runs in Sri Lanka’s five-wicket win against Pakistan in Dubai.
Dasun Shanka was all smiles when he won his 4th successive toss in the Asia Cup yesterday. And whilst nodding to the ‘luck’ comment from Sanjay Mankrekar at the toss, Shanaka mentioned that they were keen on finding the best eleven before the all-important mega event next month.

Pakistan, it appeared, seemed to have lacked clarity in their batting approach as they fared terribly post the powerplay. In fact, during the first six overs, they were helped by nine extras which made the 49-1 look even more decent than what it actually was.

Pakistan enjoyed a decent powerplay but the introduction of Hasaranga put a dent on the scoring rate as he returned with figures of 6-0 in his first two overs that included seven dot balls.
With the run-rate sinking lower with each passing over, Pakistan lost both Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam in successive overs; both gifting their wickets trying to play the release shot. The batters that followed found it tough to rotate strike against the spin trio (Hasaranga, Dhananjaya, Theekshana) and imploded through the middle overs, collapsing from 82-3 to 95-7.

One of the main takeaways for Pakistan in this tournament so far has been the improved version of Mohammad Nawaz with the bat. He played a counter-attacking knock against India and did a mighty wonderful job yesterday, in helping his side post a respectable total on board.

The left-hander smashed a couple of important sixes and if it wasn’t for his untimely run-out in the penultimate over, Pakistan looked good to push towards 140 which, obviously, would not have been enough on a wicket that had good bounce and pace.

It was, but not without the ebbs and flows of T20 cricket. Sri Lanka lost two of their top three to ducks and the wicket of Dhananjaya de Silva for nine, ultimately, left them in a spot of bother at 29-3 at the end of five overs.
The left-right combination of Nissanka and Rajapaksa, however, helped them find regular boundaries and kept the required rate under control throughout.

And despite losing a couple of wickets in pursuit of big hits, the calm-and-composed Nissanka held one end to see his side romp to a comfortable win.
Sri Lanka would have gained a lot of confidence after the convincing five-wicket win, but they will also be aware of the fact that they lost horribly the only time they batted first in this tournament.

Will the luck continue to favour them in the final? Only time will tell. As for Pakistan, they will be slightly relieved that they had a slight reality check against spin before the all-important final tomorrow. (Cricbuzz)