Pak VS Srilanka Clean Sweep

Shinwari leads Pakistan's whitewash of Sri Lanka

SHARJAH: Left-arm paceman Usman Shinwari destroyed Sri Lanka with a five-wicket burst to help Pakistan achieve a convincing nine-wicket win in the fifth and final match for a 5-0 clean sweep of the series on Monday.

Shinwari's 5-34 in seven overs reduced Sri Lanka to 103 all out in 26.2 overs in Sharjah before openers Fakhar Zaman (48) and Imam-ul-Haq (45 not out) knocked off the paltry target in 20.2 overs.

This is Pakistan's sixth whitewash in a five-match ODI series. They had blanked Zimbabwe (2002 and 2008), Bangladesh (2003 and 2008) and New Zealand in 2003 in the past.

The result was never in doubt once Shinwari assisted by Hasan Ali (2-19) and Shadab Khan (2-24) had destroyed Sri Lanka who had totals of 209, 187, 208 and 173 in the series.

The win is Pakistan's ninth in a row since winning the Champions Trophy in June this year while Sri Lanka plummetted to their 12th defeat in a row, also losing 5-0 each to South Africa and India this year.

Zaman hit seven boundaries in his 47-ball knock before he fell with just 20 needed. Imam hit the winning boundary, finishing his 64-ball knock with four boundaries and a six.

But it was Pakistan's new find Shinwari who rocked the Sri Lankans.

The 23-year-old finished with 5-34 as Sri Lanka, who won the toss and batted on an easy paced Sharjah stadium pitch, never recovered from early jolts of losing four wickets in the first three overs.

Only Thisara Perera (25), Lahiru Thirimanne (19), Seekuge Prasanna (16) and Dushmantha Chameera (11) reached double figures in an abysmal batting performance by Sri Lanka, their second-lowest total in an ODI against Pakistan.

In his next over Shinwari had skipper Upul Tharanga bowled off a nippy delivery for eight and then trapped Niroshan Dickwella leg before with the fifth to leave Sri Lanka tottering at 8-4.

Shinwari completed his maiden five-wicket haul when he had Milinda Siriwardana (six) caught by Fakhar Zaman, his wickets coming off just 21 balls -- third fastest to five wickets in an ODI.

Perera hit three boundaries and a six before he became one of two wickets by leg-spinner Shadab Khan in one over. Hasan Ali also took 2-19, 14 wickets in the series.

The two teams now play a three-match Twenty20 international series, the first two in Abu Dhabi on October 26 and 27 while the last in Lahore on October 29.

Earlier, 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 believed his team had 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.”