{"id":494,"date":"2009-07-30T11:18:29","date_gmt":"2009-07-30T11:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/?p=494"},"modified":"2023-02-08T10:44:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T10:44:53","slug":"sri-lanka-beat-pakistan-in-first-odi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/news\/international\/2009\/july\/news-20090730-531.html","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka beat Pakistan in first ODI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dambulla:<\/strong> Seamers Thilan Thushara and Nuwan Kulasekera ripped through Pakistan’s top order as Sri Lanka won the first One-Day International by 36 runs on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Left-armer Thushara finished with 3-29 and Kulasekera took 2-30 as Pakistan struggled against Sri Lanka’s 232\/9 and were bowled out for 196 in 44.4 overs at the Rangiri International Stadium.<\/p>\n

The tourists, beaten 2-0 in the preceding Test series, slipped to 134\/8 before tailenders Umar Gul and Mohammad Aamer boosted the total with a rollicking ninth-wicket stand of 62 runs.<\/p>\n

Gul top-scored for Pakistan with 33 off 21 balls, including four boundaries in one over from fast bowler Lasith Malinga. Teenager Aamer made 23.<\/p>\n

The pair took the total to 196\/8 when both batsmen fell in the space of two deliveries to hand Sri Lanka the lead in the five-match series.<\/p>\n

Aamer was run out by a direct throw from Mahela Jayawardene, before Gul was bowled by Malinga next ball.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Sri Lanka recovered from their own top order failure to post a competitive 232\/9.<\/p>\n

The hosts had collapsed to 131\/6 by the 34th over after Pakistan captain Younus Khan won the toss and elected to field in overcast conditions.<\/p>\n

All-rounder Angelo Mathews (43) led the late revival, with the last four Sri Lankan wickets adding 101 valuable runs before the 50 overs ran out.<\/p>\n

Star spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who missed the preceding Test series with a knee injury, marked his return with an aggressive 32 off 15 balls that included four boundaries and a six.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka were unable to build partnerships against the accurate Pakistani attack, which revelled on the slow wicket.<\/p>\n

Veteran Sanath Jayasuriya failed to take advantage of two dropped catches and fell for 15, while opening partner Upul Tharanga struggled to make 17.<\/p>\n

Skipper Kumar Sangakkara hit 36 and Jayawardene scored 33 in his 300th One-Day International, but none of the other top order batsmen settled in.<\/p>\n

The duo put on 48 for the third wicket before Sri Lanka lost four wickets for 38 runs to slip from a promising 93\/2 in the 22nd over.<\/p>\n

Pakistan surprisingly left out 19-year-old batsman Umar Akmal despite his unbeaten century in a practice match on Monday.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka were bolstered by the return of Muralitharan, the world’s leading wicket-taker in both Test and One-day cricket, and fast bowler Lasith Malinga.<\/p>\n

The second match will be played at the same venue on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dambulla: Seamers Thilan Thushara and Nuwan Kulasekera ripped through Pakistan’s top order as Sri Lanka won the first One-Day International by 36 runs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"cricketnirvana","author_link":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/author\/cricketnirvana\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":160,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":160,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"News"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":761,"href":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions\/761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricketnirvana.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}