Pakistan defeated South Africa in a thrilling semis played at Lords yesterday ( June 18)to enter the finals for the second consecutive time. Pakistan won the match by 7 runs.
MERCURIAL PAKISTAN dumped tournament favourites and high flyers South Africa to book themselves a place in the final of the ICC World T20 for the second successive time. They also ended South Africa’s seven match unbeaten streak in T20s, with the tag of ‘chokers’ still haunting the Proteus in high profile tournaments.
Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat on a slow Trent Bridge wicket. Even though opener Shahzaib Hasan fell without troubling the scorers to Wayne Parnell, Kamran Akmal was at his aggressive best, scoring 23 off 12 balls. Once Akmal fell with score on 28; the Shahid Afridi show started. He smashed 51 odd just 34 balls studded with eight boundaries and was ably given support by Shoaib Malik (34 off 39); while, cameos from skipper Younus and all rounder Razzaq guided Pakistan to a very competitive 149.
South Africa also lost skipper Graeme Smith early on in their run chase for 10, but Jacques Kallis continued his fine form with the bat. Younus again turned to Afridi and the latter clean bowled both Herschelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers for 5 and 1 respectively. Afridi finished with figures of 4-0-16-2(O-M-R-W) and stifled the South Africans to a great extent.
The required run rate climbed to as much as 11 by the 13th over and things got worse for the South Africans as Younus introduced strike bowler Umar Gul, who bowled with good accuracy, thus prompting Kallis and JP Duminy to go after the other bowlers. Kallis fell in the 18th over and big hitting Albie Morkel was also run out for 2, and the task was too much for Duminy and Boucher. In the end, the Africans fell short by 7 runs.
Pakistan have now booked their place in the final of the World T20 for the second consecutive time. Will this be their chance of redemption after the debacle of the 2007 final? Or will Sri Lanka/West Indies have other ideas ? Only time will tell.
