Sri Lanka’s late order batsmen held their nerve to beat Pakistan by two wickets and level the series in a match in which fortunes swung from one side to another in Dubai. Ahmed Shehzad smashed a career best 124 off 140 balls for his fourth one-day century as Pakistan posted a challenging 284-4 in 50 overs after being sent in to bat. Set 285 to chase, Sri Lanka needed 44 off the last six overs as Angelo Mathews scored 47 and Dimuth Karunaratneheld their nerves during a match-turning 44-run stand for the eighth wicket. Sri Lanka needed 16 off the last two overs and four off the final, as number ten batsman Sachitra Senanayake drove Shahid Afridi for boundary to seal a tense win for his team with two balls to spare. The win levelled the five-match series at 1-1 after Pakistan won the first match by 11 runs in Sharjah. Sangakkara completed 12,000 one-day runs in his 359th match. He is the fourth batsmen to score 12,000 or more runs in the one-day chart led by now retired Sachin Tendulkar of India followed by Australian Ricky Ponting and Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya.
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