Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 82 runs in the second T20 International in Rawalpindi on Sunday night to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, ESPNcricinfo reported.

Pakistan made 215 for 3. Sri Lanka were held to 133 for 7.

How Pakistan got to 215

The innings turned on Maaz Sadaqat, who made 96 off 51 balls and was named Player of the Match. Pakistan were a modest 55 for 1 at the end of the seventh over; they then took 156 runs from their last 12 overs.

Sadaqat put on 73 with captain Sahibzada Farhan, who made 73 off 44, and a further 72 with Hasan Nawaz. He struck three sixes in the 16th over alone, bowled by Maheesh Theekshana, and took 79 off 40 balls of the 125 Pakistan scored in the second half of the innings.

He fell one short of a maiden international hundred, holing out to deep cover off the last ball of the innings attempting to lift a slower ball from Eshan Malinga over the ropes. His previous best in three T20Is was 50.

Hiru News, filing at the innings break before the result was known, recorded Farhan’s 73 as containing four fours and five sixes.

Sri Lanka never threatened the chase

Sri Lanka slumped to 64 for 5 inside 11 overs, and none of their top seven passed 30. Seamers Mohammad Imran and Salman Mirza took five wickets between them, Imran finishing with 3 for 11 from an unbroken spell that ended after the 10th over — by which point the required rate had climbed beyond 15 an over.

Imran varied his pace heavily, going often to slower balls, and Sri Lanka could not get him away square despite what ESPNcricinfo described as good batting conditions.

Theekshana finished unbeaten on 32, adding late boundaries with Chamindu Wickramasinghe after the match was already gone.

The series

This is Sri Lanka’s second defeat in four days at the same ground. Pakistan won the first T20I by four wickets on Friday, a match in which Lahiru Udara’s 91 went unrewarded and Farhan made 89 — as this newsroom reported. Farhan has now made 89 and 73 in consecutive innings against this attack.

The tour squad was named on 2 October under Kusal Mendis, and the trip follows Dhananjaya de Silva’s resignation as Test captain earlier this month.

A third and dead-rubber T20I remains to be played.

Not reported

ESPNcricinfo’s report does not give the date of the third T20I, Sri Lanka’s individual dismissals beyond the top-seven summary, or the full bowling figures for either side. Neither filing carries post-match comment from Kusal Mendis or Sahibzada Farhan, and neither reports whether Sri Lanka will change their XI for the final match.

Sources: ESPNcricinfo, Hiru News.