Sophia Gardens, Cardiff: Sarfraz Ahmed played a captain’s knock (61 not out off 79 balls) while Mohammad Aamir (28 off 43 balls) stayed with his skipper till the end to help Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by three wickets and move into the semifinal of ICC Champions Trophy, here on Monday.

Now Pakistan will play hosts England for a place in the final.

Earlier, Pakistan bowlers – Mohammad Amir (2/53), Junaid Khan (3/50), Fahim Ashraf (2/37) and Hasan Ali (3/43) helped Pakistan restrict Sri Lanka to 236 all out in 49.2 overs.

Speaking about their stupendous win Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed said that I can't believe that they were in the semis. “Thanks to Amir, he played really well. I just told him to play his game and not to worry about the score…that if we took it to the 40th over, we would win. Drop catches are part of the game. Allah helped us and that's why Pakistan won today,” he said.

Meanwhile, Angelo Mathews said, “It was a see-saw kind of a game. Credit should go to Pakistan. They held their nerves and are deserved winners. It was a bit of a funny wicket. We hadn't got the runs on the board but we knew we could defend this. And the bowlers did their job, but we didn't hold on to our catches. But I am proud of the boys. Even though we only had 236 to defend, they gave it their all. Unfortunately, we missed a few chances. In a big tournament like this, they fought hard an inexperienced team. I'm proud of them.”