Fiery Shinwari leads Pakistan’s series sweep of Sri Lanka

Left-arm paceman Usman Shinwaridestroyed Sri Lanka with a five-wicket burst to help Pakistan achieve aconvincing nine-wicket win in the fifth and final match for a 5-0 cleansweep of the series yesterday. Shinwari’s 5-34 in seven overs reducedSri Lanka to 103 all out in 26.2 overs in Sharjah before openers Fakhar Zaman (48) and Imam-ul-Haq (45 not out) knocked off the paltry target in 20.2 overs.Thisis Pakistan’s sixth whitewash in a five-match ODI series. They hadblanked Zimbabwe (2002 and 2008), Bangladesh (2003 and 2008) and NewZealand in 2003 in the past.The result was never in doubt onceShinwari assisted by Hasan Ali (2-19) and Shadab Khan (2-24) haddestroyed Sri Lanka who had totals of 209, 187, 208 and 173 in theseries. The win is Pakistan’s ninth in a row since winning the Championstrophy in June this year while Sri Lanka plummeted to their 12th defeatin a row, also losing 5-0 each to South Africa and India this year.Zamanhit seven boundaries in his 47-ball knock before he fell with just 20needed. Imam hit the winning boundary, finishing his 64-ball knock withfour boundaries and a six. But it was Pakistan’s new find Shinwariwho rocked the Sri Lankans. The 23-year-old finished with 5-34 as SriLanka, who won the toss and batted on an easy paced Sharjah stadiumpitch, never recovered from early jolts of losing four wickets in thefirst three overs. Shinwari termed it his best bowling in the entirecareer. “Yes, you can say this is my best performance,” said Shinwari,declared man of the match. “Our bowling coach (Azhar Mahmood) alwaystells us to attack from the first ball and I did that and got wickets.”SriLankan skipper Upul Tharanga was disappointed over the loss. “For thelast 15-18 months we are losing because of poor batting,” said Tharanga,referring to Sri Lanka’s defeats which also included their first-everloss to minnows Zimbabwe at home. Only Thisara Perera (25), LahiruThirimanne (19), Seekuge Prasanna (16) and Dushmantha Chameera (11)reached double figures in an abysmal batting performance by Sri Lanka,their second lowest total in an ODI against Pakistan. Their lowest totalof 78 against Pakistan had also come at Sharjah in 2002.Shinwari,who debuted in the fourth one-day of this series, bowled SadeeraSamarawickrama with the fifth ball of the match for nought and then hadDinesh Chandimal next ball, caught behind without scoring.In hisnext over Shinwari had Tharanga bowled off a nippy delivery for eightand then trapped Niroshan Dickwella leg before with the fifth to leaveSri Lanka tottering at 8-4. Shinwari completed his maiden five-wickethaul when he had Milinda Siriwardana (six) caught by Fakhar Zaman, hiswickets coming off just 21 balls — third fastest to five wickets in anODI.Perera hit three boundaries and a six before he became one oftwo wickets by leg-spinner Shadab Khan in one over. Hasan Ali also took2-19, 14 wickets in the series. The two teams now play a three-matchTwenty20 international series, the first two in Abu Dhabi on October 26and 27 while the last in Lahore on October 29.