5 takeaways: What Sri Lanka did right and Pakistan got wrong – Sport

Sri Lanka's tour of Pakistan ended Wednesday night when the guests completed a clean 3-0 sweep in their Twenty20 series with a 13-run victory at Lahore.

Here are our five conclusions of the series.

Cricket won

The results were just the icing on the cake. The royal cake was the successful lodging of a guest who had literally been hurt under our care a decade ago.

They came, they stayed, they left and nothing bad happened. It's cliche to say this, but cricket did win.

He was threatened by the horrible past, some intriguing neighbors and our own internal incompetence, but the knight's sport still found a way.

The Lankans stayed in Pakistan for 13 days, played five games and showed the world that this was not Pakistan of the past, particularly with regard to the security situation.

Now bring to Australia and England.

Sri Lanka rugged

Now a thought for the resistance and perseverance of the Sri Lankan players. Any side hit by up to 10 withdrawals would have been content just by inventing numbers. This side of Sri Lanka was not ashamed once in the five exits on Pakistani soil.

They lost both ODI but were much more competitive than their hosts in the T20I. Granted that the absence of any expectation must have made their job a little easier, but what they earn here is much greater than what they lost by being deprived of so many of their regular customers.

Congratulations to this brave Sri Lankan team that defined the odds and made the best T20I team in the world look like an amateur.

Competition is good

Another reason we need to invite senior teams to Pakistan is the competition they bring. The two ODIs that Pakistan won failed in terms of enthralling the locals. The interest was low, the party attendance was lower and nobody really cared.

Then Sri Lanka emerged as a force in the T20I and suddenly everyone became interested. Pakistan's team was under the cosh, much to the dismay of their fans, but that is exactly what created a rumor. There was a team in the city that was giving our flat-thugs thugs a hard time. He spawned subplots like Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shehzad and kept things interesting.

I, as a cricket fan rather than a Pakistani fan, would rather take that than see my team mercilessly dominate some little fish or has-beens.

Rookie mistake at the end of Pakistan

And now a thought for the miserable 16. The loss of T20I was to make unnecessary adjustments, rotate and underestimate the opponents. What Misbah and Co and everyone else thought they could roll to the people of Sri Lanka because we are number one and they are somewhere at the bottom.

That was a rookie mistake. Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad had opportunities because not even they could fail against the Lankans, right? The impressive Iftikhar Ahmed was sent to the bench and Abid Ali was not even elected; Fakhar Zaman was on the bench when he scored; Haris Sohail rested, all these ins and outs never let anyone calm down.

The weakest links

It makes no sense to whip dead horses called Akmal and Shehzad. I've been there, done that. Others mostly have problems of form or trust.

But Fakhar Zaman and Sarfaraz Ahmed are as indefensible as anyone.
Zaman at least earned his strength in the ODI series.

Sarfaraz, on the other hand, is a massive, massive responsibility. That sequence of three balls to finish on 18 summarizes its current state. Check out this comment from ESPNcricinfo:

17.4 from Silva to Sarfaraz Ahmed, without running, inside edge on the pad, Sarfraz wants to fit this through the middle with a sweep

Silva's 17.5 to Sarfaraz Ahmed, without running, the inner edge of the platform again, another slow slow outside, another slog attempt

17.6 from Silva to Sarfaraz Ahmed, OUT. Short of a length, googly. This time Sarfraz static and upright, but keep playing

He tried the same shot twice, but failed. On the third attempt, he simply gave up, repeated just so he could get out of his misery. This has lasted too long now. The man needs to leave.