Date-stamped : 30 Dec94 - 10:28 SAARC: Sri Lanka-A v Pakistan-A National Stadium, Dhaka, 27 December 1994 Pakistan beat Sri Lanka but fail to reach final of SAARC cricket Pakistan won their last match in the round robin league of the four-nation SAARC cricket tournament against Sri Lanka Tuesday but failed to qualify for the final because of a slower run rate. India and host Bangladesh meet in the final of the week-long tournament on Wednesday. The final was brought forward by a day after opposition political parties called a general strike on Thursday. Pakistan, which had earlier won against Bangladesh, but lost to India, recorded a one-wicket victory against Sri Lanka, which lost all its matches. But the Pakistani batsmen failed to achieve a run rate of 4.78 needed to go ahead of Bangladesh in the stand- ings. Skipper Rameez Raja of Pakistan put the Sri Lankans in to bat first on a slow pitch, which was giving an edge to the bowlers. The Sri Lankans lost three quick wickets - openers C. Samaraveera and skipper Chandika Haturusinghe, and leading batsman Marvin Attapattu with the score at 28. Rusel Arnold hit 47 and Saman Jayatha made 22 to help Sri Lanka put up a respectable total of 147 in 49.5 overs. Medium pace bowler Zafar Iqbal was the most successful of the Pakistani bowlers, capturing five wickets for 25. Iqbal was ad- judged the man of the match. Kazim Hasnain, who was brought in for the first time Tuesday, took two Sri Lankan wickets for 38. The Pakistani innings was marked by an impressive 59 by Rameez Raja, who opened with Sajid Ali, who was caught at 2. Zahid Fazal hit 41 in a match in which the Pakistanis needed to reach the Sri Lankan total in 33 overs to advance to the finals. The most successful Sri Lankan bowler was spinner Upul Chandana, who took four for 22 runs and stemmed the Pakistani run rate, dashing their hopes for a berth in the finals. Source :: Deutsche Presse-Agentur Contributed by Vicky (vigneswa@sisko.ecs.umass.edu)