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Pakistan added the World Twenty20 title to their World Cup crown with a convincing eight-wicket win over Sri Lanka at Lord’s here on Sunday after a brilliant bowling and bating performance, ARY NEWS reported.

All-rounder Razzaq struck once in each of his three overs – the second, fourth, and sixth of the innings – to put Sri Lankaunder pressure from the start.

A determined effort by Kumar Sangakkara and AngeloMathews later in the innings, who compiled a hard-earned 50 partnership, moved the total onto an acceptable 138-6 from their 20 overs.

But Pakistan coasted to victory off the back of a good knock from opener Kamran Akmal (37 off 28 balls) and a superb 55 off 40 balls from Shahid Afridi, passing the winning post with eight balls and eight wickets to spare.

After losing the toss and being asked to chase, Pakistan could not have enjoyed a better start – reducing the favourites to 2-2 midway through the second over.

Teenage sensation Muhammad Amir terrorised in-form Sri Lanka opener Dilshan (0) throughout the opening over – eventually tempting him into a half-hearted hook that sailed straight into the hands of Shahzaib Hasan at gully. The bowler completed his wicket maiden with a dot ball off his final delivery.

The second over saw Sri Lanka fare little better as Jehan Mubarak (0) skied an easy catch to that man Hasan again, this time stationed at mid on.

Sanath Jayasuriya and the new man in – captain Kumar Sangakkara – steadied the ship somewhat with a couple of boundaries apiece, the opener also hammering a shorter delivery from Razzaq into the crowd over the onside boundary for six.

But Akmal’s strike bowlers weren’t done yet.

Just two balls after scoring a maximum, Jayasuriya was out for 17 – catching an inside edge of a Razzaq delivery outside offstump, which dislodged the bails.

Number five Jayawardene (1) lasted only four balls as Pakistan’s onslaught continued.

The expansive middle-order man was snaffled at slip by Misbah-ul-Haq off Razzaq’s exquisite bowling – the batsman throwing his gloves to the ground in disgust as he returned to the dugout.

At 32-4, Sri Lanka were rocking – as was Lord’s to the sound of the raucous Pakistani element in the crowd – and the favourites were in need of some cool heads.

The dramatic flurry of wickets had understandably slowed the scoring rate, and the Sri Lankan batsmen were reluctant to take any risks – especially with Pakistan’s talismanic all-rounder Afridi introduced to the bowling attack.

Reduced to taking the odd single here and there was clearly rankling with the normally so fluid and expansive Sri Lankan stars, but such an approach had become necessary if they were even to reach triple figures for their innings.

However, the introduction of paceman Umar Gul pegged back Sangakkara and Chamara Silva – who had added 35 for the fifth wicket – even further.

The destructive seamer, who took the first five-wicket haul in international Twenty20 against New Zealand earlier in the tournament, got in amongst the wickets again when Silva (14) got a drive horribly wrong and dabbed the simplest of catches to Saeed Ajmal at mid on.

The introduction of Gul’s pace, after the twin spin of Afridi and Ajmal, had unsettled a Sri Lanka team already on the ropes.

And further damage was done when Isuru Udana was bowled by Afridi, leaving the favourites’ hopes of victory hanging by a thread at 70-6.

At this point the only constant in the Sri Lankan innings – other than poor shot selection – was captain Sangakkara, who was surviving at the crease and closing in on a commendable half-century in testing circumstances.

He reached the mark with a slightly fortunate boundary that just evaded Hasan’s outstretched arms at extra cover.

Some canny scoring through a combination of good running between the skipper and Mathews – and some well-timed boundaries – succeeded in elevating the run rate above six an over.

And the partnership, which passed the 50-mark in the penultimate over off just 35 balls, bore fruit in the closing stages – including the plundering of 17 runs off Amir’s final over.

Sangakkara finished unbeaten on 64 off 52 balls, with Mathews making a brilliant cameo of 35 off 24 to rescue a half-decent total from what was a disastrous start.

Pakistan decided to play things cautiously in their run chase, aiming for a run-a-ball rate while keeping wickets in hand.

And the plan seemed to be working well when openers Akmal and Hasan maintained their composure through a relatively quiet powerplay.

The opening partnership was broken on 48 when Akmal came down the pitch to Jayasuriya’s first ball and his airshot allowed Sangakkara to break the stumps.

The first wicket did not seem to disrupt Pakistan’s rhythm in any way, and even when Hasan (19) followed Akmal into the hutch after being caught by Jayasuriya off the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan the batting side still had the upper hand at 63-2 in the tenth over.

Afridi was playing a patient innings, clearly under instructions not to do anything silly, and although he looked to open his shoulders with a big six off the first ball of the 14th over he was well in control.

By this point the odds were heavily stacked in Pakistan’s favour, with only a batting collapse likely to salvage anything from the match for Sri Lanka.

And although the contest looked somewhat alive when Pakistan needed nine an over off the final three, Afridi saw to it that the job was an easy one.

He finally gave the Pakistani supporters reason to stop biting their nails and start waving their flags and banners to salute their hero in fine style.

Afridi hammered a huge six off the penultimate ball of the 18th over and took just four balls of the 19th to reach the required total for victory – finishing on 139-2 for an eight-wicket win.

The richly-deserved victory will no doubt bring cheer to the Pakistan team, who have effectively been evicted from playing cricket in their homeland because of the political instability in the region.