Pakistan aim to learn from mistakes

Dubai(AFP): Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq hopes his team can learn from its mistakes and show improvement in the third one-day international against Sri Lanka on Friday.

Pakistan won the first of five matches by eight wickets last week but allowed Sri Lanka to level the series with a 25-run victory in the second, on Monday.

Misbah said his team made mistakes in all three departments. “We discussed about mistakes committed in the last game,” he said. “We dropped a catch, then gave away 17 extra runs and lost early wickets while batting so we need to overcome those mistakes if we want to win the next game.”  Sri Lanka posted a challenging 235-7 on the back of Upal Tharanga’s 77 and Mahela Jayawardene’s return to form 50 before restricting Pakistan to 210. Misbah agreed Sri Lanka, who scored three run-outs in Pakistan’s innings, were ahead in the field. “They definitely have an edge in fielding and that’s where we have to catch them because they effected good run-outs of Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi,” said Misbah. Pakistan are likely to bring in paceman Sohail Tanvir in place of Razzaq. Sri Lanka were also forced to summon left-arm paceman Chanaka Welegedara from Colombo after Suranga Lakmal broke down with an ankle injury and was ruled out of the remaining matches.

Sri Lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan said his team is determined to carry the momentum from Monday. “We played some good cricket and can take a lot of positives into Friday’s game because that’s an important match for both the teams as they can take lead in the series,” said Dilshan, who has yet to win a series since appointed captain in May. Dilshan said he was enjoying support from the Sri Lankan fans who came in big numbers in the first two matches. “It’s great to see so many Sri Lankans turning up and in between overs we feel the noise,” said Dilshan. “We hope more people come on Friday, which is a holiday here, it gives you encouragement.”

The remaining matches will be played in Sharjah (November 20) and Abu Dhabi (November 23). Both teams will also play a Twenty20 international in Abu Dhabi on November 25.