Pakistan restricts Sri Lanka to 139-4 in T20

(AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

By RIZWAN ALI

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) Captain Mahela Jayawardene top-scored with 42 as Sri Lanka was restricted to 139-4 by Pakistan in their World Twenty20 semifinal on Thursday.

Jayawardene added 63 runs for the opening wicket with Tillakaratne Dilshan, who scored 35 in a match at R Premadasa Stadium that was predicted to be friendlier for bowlers.

Pakistan seamers and spinners never allowed Sri Lanka to score freely after Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat.

Seamer Sohail Tanvir, who replaced Abdul Razzaq, gave away only 11 runs in his three-over spell but was unlucky not to get a wicket as he beat both Jayawardene and Dilshan with his outswingers.

Jayawardene hit seven fours in his 36-ball knock that included couple of impressive reverse swept boundaries off spinners before he mistimed a scoop off Shahid Afridi (1-28) and was caught at short fine leg in the 11th over.

Kumar Sangakkara (18) twice hit ace offspinner Saeed Ajmal for boundaries on the offside in one over but was brilliantly caught by Shoaib Malik at long on off Mohammad Hafeez as the wicket looked less conducive for strokeplay.

Dilshan struggled to up the scoring rate and was trapped lbw by Umar Gul (1-26) in the 18th over after playing a subdued knock off 43 balls with just three fours.

Thisara Perera (11) and Angelo Mathews (10) hit three boundaries in the last over - bowled by Gul - which gave the host some hope.

Updated October 4, 2012