Twitter explodes as the visitors surrender to Pakistan once again

Venues changed, the team changed a little bit, but fate hasn’t and hence, Pakistan once again managed to restrict Sri Lanka to a paltry total. After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Pakistan ensured the visitors kept dancing according to their tunes. Sri Lanka’s dismal show means that they are well on their way towards registering their 11th defeat in a row.

Debutant Usman Khan provided the initial breakthrough for his side, sending back the big fish Upul Tharanga for a duck. Niroshan Dickwella looked in good touch as the youngster grabbed a few boundaries to get going, but once again in the series, he failed to convert the start into a big one. He tried to dance down the ground off Junaid Khan and managed to slice the ball towards covers, where Fakhar Zaman took a simple catch.

The game turned upside down when Chandimal ram himself out courtesy a misunderstanding between him and Thirimanne. In the same over, debutant Sadeera Samarawickrama was dismissed by Imad Wasim for a duck and they were reduced to 59/4 in 11 overs. Thirimanne was the lone star of the innings for Sri Lanka as he chipped in with a crucial 62 off 94 balls.

Thirimanne holds on with the tail

For the next ten overs, the flurry of wickets stopped but once Milinda Siriwardana go dismissed, they lost another two wickets in quick succession and they were in a predicament at 99/7. Thirimanne took great charge of the innings from here on and though he ensured the scoreboard kept ticking, the run rate was too low and there was nothing he could do.

He did a brilliant job batting with Akila Dananjaya and they found themselves at 142/7 in 35 overs. If they would’ve tried to stick in there for the remaining overs, a score of above 200 would’ve been on cards but that didn’t happen. Hasan Ali once again damaged their lower order and proved his status as a champion in the death overs. Sri Lanka got bundled out 173 in 43.4 overs and Hasan Ali was the pick of the bowlers, with figures of 3/37.

Here’s how Twitter reacted.