Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

122 greeted by a roar of approval from local supporters as well as those supporting Pakistan. Javed’s partnership with Zaheer built on the good work of the earlier batsmen with Zaheer, better known as an off-side player, hooking and rolling his wrists on the ball as he despatched it into the leg-side. With bright, hot sunshine bathing the ground their efforts had seen Pakistan to 187 off 44 overs with Zaheer driving fluently, besides securing an all-run four to deep square-leg to expose some shoddy fielding by the Sri Lankans. Zaheer eventually departed in the 50 th over before Imran Khan came in to provide the coup de grace, striking 56 from just 33 balls as he feasted on the tiring attack. Javed joined in with the run spree striking 49 from 24 balls with a pair of massive sixes into the member’s enclosure before departing leg before as Pakistan added 108 from the last ten overs. Sri Lanka’s task was to score 339 on what had become a very flat wicket, but the loss of wickets at frequent intervals prevented any meaningful partnerships from taking place. All of the Pakistan seamers found conditions in their favour, including Rashid Khan, the black-haired young bowler, whose self-conscious smile peeped out from behind a small but bushy black beard. Right from his opening over, he got the ball to swing as the tide advanced out in Swansea Bay as the Sri Lankan batsmen played Majid Khan receives an award. International cricket comes to Swansea