Shahid Afridi hit an unbeaten 54 as Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets to win the World Twenty20 final at Lord’s.
Shoaib Malik [24] played his part in a third-wicket partnership of 76 as Pakistan made 139-2 with an over and two balls to spare.
An unbroken seventh-wicket partnership of 78 between Kumar Sangakkara [64 from 52 balls] and Angelo Mathews [35] propelled Sri Lanka to a respectable 138-6 after they won the toss. Abdul Razzaq took 3-20 to help Pakistan reduce Sri Lanka to 70-6 at one point.
The prolific Tillakaratne Dilshan failed to get hold of a short ball from Mohammad Aamer and was caught from the fifth ball of the innings for a duck. Razzaq struck in the following over with Jehan Mubarak, also run less, mistiming a shot into the welcoming hands of Shahzaib Hasan to leave Sri Lanka wobbling on 2-2.
Sanath Jayasuriya [17] showed his will to fight with a towering six in the fourth over, but three balls later, Razzaq had his revenge with the Sri Lankan opener chopping on.
Razzaq then accounted for Mahela Jayawardene [1] who steered a shot to slip where Misbah took the catch. A semi fight back by Sri Lanka was halted by Umar Gul who saw Silva [14] perish off his bowling in the 12th over.
It was very shortly 70-6 with Isuru Udana [1] bamboozled by a delivery from Shahid Afridi before Sangakkara played a captain’s innings alongside the 17-year-old Mathews who boosted the score with a six in the final over.
The Pakistan openers plundered 39 runs off the first six overs to successfully negotiate the opening power play without dropping a wicket for the first time in this tournament.
Sri Lanka finally made the breakthough when Kamran Akmal was stumped off the bowling of Jayasuriya having struck 37 off 28 deliveries. Afridi then entered the fray with the score at 48-1, and the big-hitter watched Shahzaib [19] hit some boundaries before the teenager was caught off the beguiling spin of Muttiah Muralitharan.
Afridi and Shoaib Malik were content to milk the bowling before Afridi plundered 10 from two Muralitharan deliveries to put in a surge during the 14th over. Afridi then launched into a huge six in the 18th over to leave Pakistan with a run-a-ball target of 13 to win.
Afridi then brought up his 50 with a boundary off a wide delivery and the win was secured with a scrambled run, with eight deliveries remaining, to make Pakistan the World Twenty20 champions for the first time.