The 17th over by Hasaranga served as Pakistan’s death knell with three wickets falling in quick succession.
It was Rajapaksa, who laid the foundation, Madushan, who built the structure and Hasaranga, who gave the finishing touches.
The whippy right-arm fast medium Madushan, who got Babar Azam (5) and Fakhar Zaman (0), gave Sri Lanka the upper-hand at the start of the chase.
While Babar was guilty of flicking a wide long hop down leg side straight into short fine leg fielder’s hands, Fakhar dragged an angular delivery back onto stumps.
Rizwan (55 off 49 balls) as usual played the sheet anchor’s role hitting the odd boundaries as Iftikhar Ahmed (32 of 31 balls) started hitting after 10 overs but Madushan coming back for his second spell had him holed out in the deep.
If there was one difference between the sides, it was fielding. While Pakistan were poor on the field dropping catches, Sri Lankans took some smart catches and were outstanding in the deep mid-wicket bounary.
At one point, even the spectators got frustrated with Rizwan’s push and prod game which is good for totals in the 150 range but not the 170 plus ones. Finally when the pressure went above critical limit, Hasaranga had him caught at deep.