LONDON, June 21: Pakistan won the ICC World T20 Cup defeating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in the final at Lord´s on Sunday. Shahid Afridi played his best knock of the event scoring 54 not out off just 39 balls as Pakistan conquered the cup chasing Sri Lanka´s 138-6 in 18.4 overs with eight wickets remaining.
Afridi was named man-of-the-match for his effort while Tilakratne Dilshan won the player of the tournament award. [break]
Shoaib Malik got 24 not out off 22 balls playing a helping hand to Afridi, who followed his match-winning half-century against South Africa in semifinal, with yet another half-century as Pakistan won the final without much pressure.
The foundation for the win was set by the opening pair - Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan who got 48 together. Akmal got 37 off 28 balls and Hasan scored 19 off 23 balls. Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan got a wicket each but there was very less to cheer up for Sri Lanka, a team that also lost the World Cup final in 2007 against Australia.
"Fantastic," Pakistan captain Younis Khan said. "We were the underdogs and thus no pressure on us. And, then we had our momentum going with players like Afridi. He is a match winner for us."
"This is a gift for our nation, in a right time," he added.
Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara thanked all Sri Lankan fans for the support. "I´m very proud of my team," says Sangakkara. "I´m proud about their fight, their attitude and I think we´re going to be a really good team. It was tough for our bowling unit to keep on defending totals during the tournament, we could have done with 20 runs more. That´s (Sri Lanka´s) the best bowling unit in the world."
Earlier, Abdul Razzaq claimed three wickets as a fired-up Pakistan restricted Sri Lanka to 138-6.
Sri Lanka, the only unbeaten team in the tournament, were dealt quick blows after captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to take first strike on a slow wicket.
The Lankans slumped to 2-2 in the first nine balls and that became 34-4 before Sangakkara himself led the rescue act with a defiant unbeaten 64 from 52 balls.
Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews put on 68 valuable runs for the unbroken seventh wicket as Sri Lanka plundered 59 runs in the final five overs.
Mathews returned unbeaten on 35 off 24 balls."I kept bowling at the stumps. I knew their guys would go for me so I bowled a full length," said Razzaq.
Pakistan’s historic win against India in the World Cup
Pakistan got off to a sensational start in the sell-out final when teenage fast bowler Mohammad Aamir sent back the in-form Tillekaratne Dilshan with the fifth ball of the match.
Dilshan, the tournament´s leading scorer with 317 runs, miscued a pull shot off the speedy left-armer and was caught at backward square-leg by Shahzaib Hasan for zero.
Four balls later, Shahzaib grabbed his second catch at mid-off as Jehan Mubarak skied a leading edge off Razzaq, who shared the new ball with Aamir.
Sanath Jayasuriya counter-attacked with a six and four in Razzaq´s second over, but the bowler hit back two balls later as the left-handed veteran edged a ball on to his stumps after making 17.
Razzaq, who replaced the injured Yasir Arafat after ending his links with the rebel Indian Cricket League, struck again in his third over when Misbah-ul Haq dived to his right at slip to remove Mahela Jayawardene for one.
Chamara Silva brought up Sri Lanka´s 50 in the 10th over when he pulled off-spinner Shoaib Malik to the square-leg fence, and then helped Sangakkara take 11 runs in the next over from Shahid Afridi.
The total moved to 67-4 in the 12th when seamer Umar Gul struck with his third ball to have Silva tapping a catch to Saeed Ajmal at mid-wicket after making 14.
Tailender Isuru Udana, who was surprisingly promoted to number seven, lasted only five balls when Afridi breached his defence to peg pack the stumps and make Sri Lanka 70-6 in 13 overs.
