Sports- Usman Shinwari plays havoc against Sri Lanka
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DUBAI - Left-arm pacer Usman Khan Shinwari destroyed top and middle order of Sri Lanka in the fifth and final ODI of the series at Sharjah today reports a local media outlet.
He struck in the very first over of the match to remove both Samarawickrama and Chandimal off consecutive balls.
He struck again in his next over to dismiss skipper Tharanga and Dickwella, reducing Sri Lanka to 8-4 after Sri Lanka won the toss earlier and decided to bat against Pakistan, who already lead the series by 4-0.
All-rounder Fahim Ashraf is in for fast bowler Junaid Khan.
Coach Mickey Arthur made no secret of his intention of inflicting a clean sweep on Sri Lanka when the teams meet today. Since their ICC Champions Trophy 2017 triumph in June, Pakistan have won eight straight games and have been unstoppable in limited overs, having overcome the disappointment of losing the preceding Test series to Sri Lanka 2-0 to open up a 4-0 lead in this series.
Arthur believes his team has shown the hunger to keep winning. “I will be disappointed if we didn’t make it 5-0,” he said ahead of the match. “The guys are hungry and they definitely want to do that. The key for us is to maintain our hunger and ruthlessness so we need to keep that momentum and put this series to bed.”
Pakistan have previously achieved five clean sweeps, all in series involving five games. They blanked Zimbabwe in 2002-03, Bangladesh in 2003, New Zealand in 2003-04 and Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in the 2008 season.
