Nairobi, Oct 8: Pakistan registered the most comprehensive victory yet of the ICC Cup when they beat Sri Lanka by nine wickets in the quarter finals today.

Set a moderate target of 195, Pakistan's only wicket loss was through a run out. That was Imran Nazir, who made a comfortable 40 before he was run out by a throw from Maravan Attapattu.

Imran Nazir played some nice pulls of the pacers Zoysa and Vaas and was looking good for a big score.

The Sri Lankan bowlers could not make any impact on the other opener Saeed Anwar, who brought up his own century and victory for his team with a sixer in the 43rd over.

In company with him was Yousuf Youhana, who curbed his strokes to help Anwar reach his century. He did hit one huge straight six off Jayasuriya. Yohana made 42 in 83 balls.

Anwar hit 12 fours and one six in his innings, which was characterised by discipline and selective stroke play. One shot when he struck a ball from Vaas for a flat boundary to long on remains in the mind. He played some exquisite cuts from Muralitharan, which beat the fielders repeatedly in the third man area. Murali is not that effective against lefties and he could have tried bowling round the wicket for variation.

Would it have made a difference if Sri Lanka had chosen to bowl? After all, they have an excellent win record chasing. One does not really think so. Pakistan was by far the superior side and would probably have gone through even if they had bowled second.

With Pakistan set to play the winner of the New Zealand - Zimbabwe encounter in the first semi-final, it looks like they will play the final bar a shock defeat.