Shoot for the stars and at least you'll land on the moon, or so the saying goes. But for Sri Lanka, their high-flown aspirations barely cleared the stratosphere (to stay with the metaphor), as they were restricted to 133 for 8 by their rival in Abu Dhabi.

Even that required an intervention by Kamindu Mendis, whose 50 off 44 was the only thing keeping the innings from devolving into farcical territory. His partnerships, first with Wanindu Hasaranga - 22 off 28 - and then Chamika Karunaratne - 43 off 39 - dragged Sri Lanka's innings to respectability if not competitiveness, as he helped his side recover from being 58 for 5 midway through the eighth over.

Kamindu eventually fell, trapped lbw by a Shaheen Shah Afridi toe-crusher, a decision that needed to be overturned on review. It was Afridi's third wicket of the innings, as he finished with figures of 3 for 28; he had earlier picked up both openers in the powerplay.

The rival dominated all phases of the innings, with Sri Lanka paying the price for their reckless abandon, having been put on what seemed like a good batting track. In the power play, despite scoring 53 runs, Sri Lanka lost each of their top three cheaply.

Then any notions of a middle overs consolidation were just as quickly snuffed out by Hussain Talat's double-wicket opening over, in which he got rid of a dangerous-looking Charith Asalanka and Dasun Shanaka off consecutive deliveries.

This gave way to a period in which Sri Lanka's scoring slowed to a trickle, with Abrar Ahmed in particular proving tough to get away as he bowled his four overs on the trot, giving away just eight runs and picking up the wicket of Wanindu Hasaranga.

Between overs six to 16, Sri Lanka struck just 44 runs, and then in the death over, they struck a further 36. With 180 being the target before the start of the game, Sri Lanka will know they've fallen well short of expectations.