Dushmantha Chameera took impressive bowling figures of 4-20 as Sri Lanka sealed their place in the final of the T20 tri-series with a six-run win over Pakistan.Despite qualifying for Saturday's final with three consecutive wins, Pakistan were bowled out for 178-7, with captain Salman Ali Aga scoring an unbeaten 63.Sri Lanka scored 184-5 thanks to opener Kamil Mishra's important inning of 76 runs in 48 balls and it was necessary to win this match to eliminate Zimbabwe from the last position.
Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka said, “Proud of the way the boys came back.” “Everyone contributed… of course Chameera (displayed) bowled world class.”Chameera dominated the power play with figures of 3-3 and sealed the win by conceding only three runs in the final over when Pakistan needed 10 runs.He dismissed Sahibzada Farhan for 9 runs on a slow ball and dismissed Babar Azam for 0. Sam Ayub was bowled by Ishan Malinga after scoring 27 runs, while Fakhar Zaman became the victim of Chameera.Agha and Usman Khan made a partnership of 56 runs before Khan was out for 33 runs. After this, Agha along with Mohammad Nawaz made a quick partnership of 70 runs in 36 balls.Malinga dismissed Nawaz for 27 runs in the last over and Chameera's accurate bowling in the last over sealed the victory.After electing to bat first, Sri Lanka's innings started with a strong opening partnership between Mishra and Kusal Mendis. In the third over, Salman Mirza dismissed Pathum Nissanka for 8 runs.Mendis scored 40 runs with the help of six fours and a six before falling victim to the fast ball of Abrar Ahmed. Mishara maintained the rhythm till he was caught out at deep midwicket in the 17th over.Zenith Liyanage and Shanaka remained unbeaten on 24 and 17 respectively, having scored 24 runs in the last two overs.“I think it was possible with the dew coming but we lost a lot of wickets in the powerplay and gave away a lot of runs in the powerplay,” Aga said. “If you give away too many runs in the powerplay, you will always be chasing the game. I would have been happier if I had finished the game but it was good to have some time in the middle.”
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