Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 1st ODI 2009: Preview and Live Score

Sri Lanka is going to play against Pakistan in the first one-day international cricket match on 30 July, Thursday. The match is going to be a day match and it is not welcome news for every one because it is time of hot weather in Sri Lanka. So, the players will not be able to play in good environment. On the other hand, it is going to take place on Thursday a working day in both Sri Lanka and Pakistan. So, the cricket crazy fans will not be able to watch most part of their matches in their television sets.

The match is going to take place at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium and let me tell you something about it first. The stadium has sitting capacity of more than 16,000. It has also floodlight. Dambulla International cricket Stadium was built in 2000 and the first match took place in March 2000 was between England and Sri Lanka. The pitch is considered to be good for bowlers and fast bowlers get more benefit in morning time while in the afternoon it is the spinners to get more support from the pitch.

You know that Sri Lanka and Pakistan just finished playing a test series and in this test series, three matches were played in which Sri Lanka won the first two and the third was a draw. In fact, in the third test match, Pakistan was lucky that they could draw it because at one time it looked that they could loss it. Thus, Pakistan was very lucky to get saved from a total white wash in a test series. Of course, one-day international is a different ball game compared to test matches. Anything can happen in an ODI match and it is very unpredictable.

Although, Pakistan suffered humiliating defeat in the test series, their captain is very optimistic that they would much perform better in their ODI. In fact, Pakistan is confident that they can win the ODI series because they have some good players. In fact, the good part for them is that some fresh and new players are going to take part in the ODI series. First of all, I have to talk about the Shahid Afridi, who decided not to play in the test series. He was the top player in ICC World Twenty20 2009. Then there is Rana Naved and Imran Nazir who are going to make into the national team after a long absence because of their playing in Indian Cricket League or ICL. These three players are in fresh mood and they can really improve the performance of the team.

I would like to talk more about Shahid Afridi because it seems that 2009 is the year of Afridi. In April, he played against Australia in Dubai and his performance was best for his team. In fact, in that series he was in top form and among all the Pakistani players, Afridi performed consistently in the series against Australia. The same can be said in World Twenty20 Cup. He was the key man behind the success of his team. I hope that you remember that Pakistan became champion of World Cup Twenty20 2009 and in the final match they defeated Sri Lanka. Shahid Afridi was man of the match in semi-final and final matches in Twenty20 World Cup and it shows that what kind of form he is. Another player that Pakistan is hoping a lot is Umar Akmal who is the brother of Kamran Akmal. Umar Akmal is a very young player and he is only 19-year old but on this Monday, he scored 101 runs against Sri Lanka A in a warm-up match. So, there is a lot of expectation from Umar Akmal too.

Sri Lankan players are also very confident. They are in good form in 2009. They demolished Pakistan in the test series as I just stated earlier. And all their players are in good form. Sri Lanka has a very talented and they are consistently performing well since their world cup triumph in 1996.

However, I think that Sri Lanka will miss Chaminda Vaas. Chaminda Vaas recently retired from test cricket but he said that he wanted to play ODI matches for another two years. However, Sri Lankan selector did not think that Vaas was an experienced and good player now and they did not select him. I think that it is a big mistake and they should not have done it. Chaminda Vaas has been the main fast bowler for many years for Sri Lankan team and they should have picked him. However, Sri Lankan fans will surely miss Tillakaratne Dilshan more than Chaminda Vaas. Dilshan was in superb form in Twenty20 World Cup 2009 but he is suffering from a bad injury that he got in the third test.

I am afraid that rain can play very important fact in the match because at this moment in South Asia it is time of rainy season.

So, who do you think will win the match? I think that Pakistan has better chance because they have got some fresh players and Afridi is in superb form in this year. Pakistan cricket board has also acted very smartly by bringing back quality players like Rana Naved and Imran Nazir. Both of them are good for shorter version of cricket.

Live Score:

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Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2009 Live in Ten Sports TV Channel

Pakistan is now in Sri Lanka to face the home team in a three-match test and five-match ODI series alongside a twenty20 international. Test series begins from 4 July with the first test match at Galle International Stadium. This is going to be the first test match for both Pakistan and Sri Lanka since the deadly terror attack on Sri Lankan team bus last March that left six security personnel and a bus driver dead, besides several injured including few Sri Lankan cricketers and their assistant coach. No doubt, both teams would like to put it behind their memory ahead of the series.

Pakistan is now full of confidence after winning the twenty20 world cup, while Sri Lanka also has enough reasons to remain confident as they finished the tournament winning runners up trophy. It is pretty much certain that the focus is now totally on cricket. Both sides would like to exploit their advantages to the fullest in order to dominate the opposition. Though Sri Lanka will have home advantage, Pakistan may not face any big problems because the condition would be pretty much similar to Pakistan. However, one thing is for sure that spinners could play a big role in the series, given the spinner friendly wickets of the sub-continent. Overall, we can expect a highly competitive series between two Asian powerhouses of cricket.

I know many of you are now eagerly waiting to watch the matches live on television. However, I am very sorry to say that I can not give you lots of information regarding the television coverage of the series, except that Ten Sports is going to cover the entire tour of Pakistan including the test and ODI series as well as the only twenty20 international. I checked some other popular sports channels, but could not find any other channel which is going to broadcast the series.

Ten Sports is one of the most popular sports channels in Asia, especially in South Asia and Middle East. However, sports fans from Europe and some other parts of Asia can also watch the series on Ten Sports. If you want to get the Ten Sports television schedule according to your location, then click here.

Pakistan vs Sri Lanka Series 2009 Schedule

(This entry was originally uploaded on May 2009.)

Pakistan will visit Sri Lanka in a full-fledged series in July-August this year. There will be three tests, five ODIs and one twenty20 international in the series. Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka kicks off with a three-day practice match against a local team on June 29, 2009 at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground, Colombo. Pakistan cricket is currently suffering from the country’s unstable security condition and has recently been stripped off the host status of ICC World Cup 2011 by.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is currently busy in retaining their host status of next world cup which was originally scheduled to take place in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. However, following the Lahore terror attack on Sri Lankan team bus in March, Pakistan’s right as one of the four co-hosts of world cup was taken away in fear of lack of security in the country. However, PCB has recently issued a legal notice to ICC on this regard and PCB officials are now trying to get the supports of neighboring cricket playing nations like Sri Lanka so that Pakistan can get back their host status. Here, it is notable that ICC Champions Trophy, which was originally scheduled to take place in Pakistan last September, has now been relocated to South Africa in September 2009 on security ground.

Pakistan team has recently faced Australia in a five-match ODI series in UAE which they lost 3-2. Though Pakistan started off pretty well, clinching an emphatic victory in the first ODI, Pakistani players lost the momentum in the middle of the series, and eventually lost the ODI series with a match left in hand, losing three games in a row. However, Pakistan pulled off an easy win in the last match only to make it 3-2.

Sri Lankan team will go into the test series with their Lahore memory fresh in mind which caused minor injury to a number of Sri Lankan players. For both Sri Lanka and Pakistan, this will be the first test series since the Lahore terror attack. In that two-match test series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the Karachi test was drawn, before the Lahore test being stopped following the terror assault. Before that, Sri Lanka won the test series in Bangladesh in December-January.

However, Sri Lanka’s recent performance in ODI is not satisfactory at all as they lost the home series against India 4-1 earlier this year. Well, Pakistan may have also lost their recent ODI series against Australia, but Pakistan did not let Australia dominate all through the series. In fact, Pakistan won the first and the fifth matches of the series with sheer dominance. Both Sri Lanka and Pakistan would consider the ODI series as a platform to prepare themselves for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy which will take place in South Africa in September 2009.

Pakistan missed a lot of cricket over the last few years due to tumultuous security condition of the country. In fact, Pakistan did not play any test series at home last year. Well, you might think that Pakistan would face some problems in the test series as they did not play many test matches over the last one and half years. However, I do not think so because Sri Lanka has also played only 2 test matches so far this year and the Sri Lankan players will not have any more test matches before the home test series against Pakistan.

Coming from twenty20 world cup, both Pakistan and Sri Lanka might find it pretty difficult to adjust their mindset with test cricket. As Pakistan and Sri Lanka have asked their ICL players to cut the ties with the rebel ICL recently, you might see a number of ICL players coming back to the national team for the Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka, though it is less likely to happen, because even if ICL players cut their ties with ICL successfully, they have to play domestic cricket before coming into the reckoning of national selectors. However, I would not be surprised to see a number of ICL players coming back to national side with Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka.

Here, I am giving you the full schedule of Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka:

Match	Date	Competing Teams	Time	Venue
Practice Match	June 29- July 1 Mon-Wed	TBC vs Pakistan	Local 10:00, GMT 04:30	Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground, Colombo
1st Test	July 4-8 Sat- Wed	Sri Lanka vs Pakistan	Local 10:00, GMT 04:30	Galle International Stadium
2nd Test	July 12-16 Sun- Thu	Sri Lanka vs Pakistan	Local 10:00, GMT 04:30	P Sara Oval, Colombo
3rd Test	July 20-24 Mon- Fri	Sri Lanka vs Pakistan	Local 10:00, GMT 04:30	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombos
Practice Match	July 27 Mon	TBC vs Pakistan	Local 09:30, GMT 04:00	Welagedara Stadium, Kurunegala
1st ODI	July 30 Thu	Sri Lanka vs Pakistan	Local 09:30, GMT 04:00	Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium
2nd ODI	August 1 Sat	Sri Lanka vs Pakistan	Local 09:30, GMT 04:00	Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium
3rd ODI	August 3 Mon	Sri Lanka vs Pakistan	Local 09:30, GMT 04:00	Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium
4th ODI	August 7 Fri	Sri Lanka vs Pakistan	Local 14:30, GMT 09:00	R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo
5th ODI	August 9 Sun	Sri Lanka vs Pakistan	Local 14:30, GMT 09:00	R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo
Only T20	August 12 Wed	Sri Lanka vs Pakistan	Local 18:00, GMT 12:30	R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo