AFP, Lahore :
Inexperienced Sri Lanka completed a 3-0 clean-sweep in their Twenty20 series with world number one Pakistan on Wednesday with a 13-run victory in Lahore.
Chasing a modest 148-run target, Pakistan were on course for victory with Haris Sohail’s 50-ball 52 with four boundaries and a six but leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga turned the tables with 3-21 to restrict the hosts to 134-6 in 20 overs.
Hasaranga had Sohail stumped in the 16th over and then dismissed Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed (16-ball 17) in the 18th to give Sri Lanka victory on a match day designated as Pink Day for breast cancer awareness.
“It’s really a good victory,” said Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka. “All the players were bonded, that was the key to our success.
“There are no extraordinary players here – they’re all talented, but the unity was the secret. If we play smart cricket, there’s always a possibility to win.”
Oshada Fernando had struck a brilliant 48-ball 78 with three sixes and eight boundaries – the highest by a Sri Lankan player on T20I debut – to lift Sri Lanka to 147-7 in their 20 overs.
Jehan Mubarak and Danushka Gunathilaka – who both scored 46 each – had held the previous record for most runs on a Twenty20 debut for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s victory was their first-ever Twenty20 series whitewash and was achieved despite missing 10 of their top players, including regular T20 skipper Lasith Malinga, who refused to tour Pakistan over security fears after their team was struck by terror attacks in Lahore in March 2009.
However their absences did not hurt Sri Lanka as they staged a remarkable comeback after losing the one-day series 2-0 by winning the first two matches of the T20 series by 64 and 35 runs respectively.
Before this, Pakistan’s only Twenty20 whitewash defeat was at the hands of England in United Arab Emirates in 2015.
