Marvan Atapattu's 11th one-day century was all in vain

Pakistan made it four wins out of four at the Paktel Cup as Inzamam-ul-Haq steered them home by six wickets against Sri Lanka in Lahore.

They faced a tough target after Sri Lanka totalled 293-6 thanks to Marvan Atapattu's 111 off 114 balls.

But Salman Butt (57) and Shoaib Malik (56) set Pakistan on their way and they reached 297-4 with seven balls to spare as Inzamam made 76 not out.

The two teams will meet again at the same ground in Saturday's final.

It was another beautifully judged innings by Inzamam, who has now passed 50 on 82 occasions in one-day internationals, converting 10 of them into centuries.

Pakistan needed 80 off the last 10 overs but he and Yousuf Youhana made light of their task, adding 75 before Youhana was caught at long-off for 30.

The end came only four balls later, however, as new batsman Abdul Razzaq found the boundary with an off-drive - his only scoring stroke.

Inzamam won the toss at the start and opted to put Sri Lanka in, but was let down by some poor fielding and wayward bowling after Naved-ul-Hasan had dismissed both openers cheaply.

Hameed was first to go in Pakistan's run chase

Mohammad Sami was removed from the attack by the umpires after only eight overs of his stint for sending down two beamers, and Shoaib Akhtar conceded 30 from four.

Hasan proved the most expensive of the Pakistan bowlers, however, going for 65 in his 10 overs as Sangakkara and Atapattu led the fightback.

Sangakkara reached his 50 off 62 balls, five fewer than his skipper, but was put down twice on 54 before finally losing his wicket 172 when he advanced down the pitch to Shahid Afridi and was stumped.

Atapattu also had a let-off when he was dropped at square leg on 31 and capitalised by progressing to his 11th one-day century.

When he was finally run out, it was left to Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Chandana to try and raise the tempo still further in the closing overs.

And they did so to some effect with Dilshan making an unbeaten 32 off 25 balls and Chandana hitting 10 not out off seven.

Pakistan began positively in reply as Butt and Yasir Hameed shared an opening stand of 99 in 20 overs.

Hameed was bowled for 48 by leg-spinner Upul Chandana as he attempted a slog-sweep and 20-year-old Butt was then caught behind off Chaminda Vaas after passing 50 for the first time for Pakistan.

There were few alarms, however, as Malik and Inzamam put on 71 for the third wicket in nine overs.

And despite Malik being bowled by Dilhara Fernando with the last ball of the 39th over, Inzamam struck a six and eight fours to seal the win.

Pakistan: Inzamam-ul Haq (capt), Yasir Hameed, Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Yousuf Youhana, Moin Khan, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar, Rana Naved-ul-Hassan.

Sri Lanka: M Atapattu (capt), S Jayasuriya, K Sangakkara (wkt), M Jayawardene, T Dilshan, S Jayantha, D Fernando, T Kandamby, C Vaas, U Chandana, N Zoysa.

Umpires: S Taufel (Aus), Nadeem Ghauri (Pkn)