Sri Lanka skipperMahela Jayawardene scored 42 off 36 ballls
A disciplined Pakistan bowling attack restricted Sri Lanka for 139-4 in the 1st semi-final of ICC World Twenty20 at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
Barring Umar Gul, who conceded 16 runs in the last over, almost all bowlers produced economical spells.
Sri Lankan innings was largely built around the 63-run opening partnership between Skipper Mahela Jayawardene (42 off 36) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (35).
Paceman Sohail Tanvir justified his replacement with Abdul Razzaq by delivering the economical figures of 0-13 in three overs. Spinners Raza Hasan (0-26), Shahid Afridi (1-28) also though their tight line and length and prohibited the hosts from making runs rots.
Getting off to sluggish start after electing to bat, Lankan openers Dilshan and Jayawardene crawled to past 50-mark in ninth over.
Afridi eventually scalped the much-crucial breakthrough for Pakistan by dismissing Jayawardene, who hit seven boundaries.
Kumar Sangakkara clobbered 18 runs 11 balls before being holed out to Shoaib Malik off skipper Mohammad Hafeez.
Dilshan’s resisting knock came to an end in the 18th over when Gul snared him in front of stumps with a catastrophic Yorker.
Jeevan Mendis departed after adding 15 on board while Thissara Perera and Angelo Mathews contributed 10 and 11 runs respectively.
Like Pakistan, Sri Lanka also made one change in their squad and dropped spinner Akila Dananjaya to bring in left-arm spinner Rangana Herath.
