Asia Cup: Nawaz, Talat Keep Pakistan's Final Hopes Alive Khaleej Times

all round Mohammad Nawaz and Hussain Talat staged a stirring fightback to keep Pakistan's hopes alive as Salman Agha's team beat Sri Lanka by five wickets in a crunch Super Four game at the Asia Cup in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Chasing a modest 134, Pakistan were in all sorts of trouble after losing their fifth wicket at 80 in the 12th over.

While their strike rate was impressive, Pakistan were in danger of running out of gas in hot and humid conditions.

But a brilliant 58-run unbroken sixth-wicket partnership between Nawaz (38 not out off 24 balls, 3 fours and 3 sixes) and Talat (32 not out off 30 balls, 4 fours) took Pakistan home with 12 balls to spare.

Having lost the first Super Four game against India, Pakistan are now back in the race for the final.

Earlier, pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi (4-0-28-3) and Talat (3-0-18-2) were superb with the ball for Pakistan.

But even more impressive was spinner Abrar Ahmed, who gave away just eight runs from his four overs while taking the wicket of Sri Lankan bowling all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga.

Despite their second straight defeat in the Super Four, Sri Lanka, according to ESPNcricinfo, still have a slim chance of reaching the final.

But Lanka need Bangladesh to win their two remaining games - against India and Pakistan - and they have to beat India by a big margin.

There are a lot of ifs and buts for Sri Lanka, but Pakistan will be confident of beating Bangladesh in their last Super Four game on Thursday for a place in Sunday's final.

Skipper Agha, though, admitted that Pakistan need to improve their middle-order batting.

After getting a fine start - they were 45 for no loss in the sixth over - Pakistan lost five wickets for 25 runs until they were rescued by Nawaz and Talat who was named man of the match for his all-round performance.

"Cannot say it was a perfect game. We lost four wickets in three overs, but apart from that, it could be a perfect game but we need to stop doing that," Agha said.

"We have been doing that since Sharjah (tri-series) and we need to stop that."

Brief scores:

Pakistan 138 for 5 (Nawaz 38 not out, Talat 32 not out, Theekshana 2-24, Hasaranga 2-27) beat Sri Lanka 133 for 8 (Kamindu Mendis 50, Afridi 3-28, Talat 2-18, Rauf 2-37) by five wickets

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