Australia defeats Pakistan in T20 World Cup match
Pakistan continues to suffer at the hands of the merciless Australians, as the fifty overs World champions routed the men in green by 34 runs at St.Lucia, in a group A encounter of the ICC T-20 world championship. It looks like that the men in green are still in awe of the fearsome Aussies after the hiding they received in their tour down under where they lost all international matches to the hosts, and the trend continued at St.Lucia.
From the word go, the Aussies looked in control against the reigning champions, openers David Warner and Shane Watson were men on mission tearing apart the Pakistani attack, that looked hapless against the rampaging batsmen. Watson was the one who was in top gear, shredding apart the pace and spin attack, the all-rounder went for the leather in no uncertain terms smashing one boundary after another in his brutal assault against the bowlers.
Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Sami were all treated disdainfully by Watson, the all-rounder smashed four towering sixes in his 81 run knock that also included seven hits to the fence. Watson was ably supported by right-handed David Hussey, who was also in supreme touch, the hard-hitting middle-order batsman had a special liking for fast bowler Mohammad Sami whom he hammered for four sixes in one over, that went for 28 runs.
Sami who was the hero of Pakistan’s bowling effort against the Bangladeshis’ on Saturday, looked completely rattled and kept pitching the ball in similar areas, making it easy for Hussey to tonk him for one six after another in the fateful over. Sami was in a hurry to finish the over and unfortunately for the Karachi speedster, lost the plot in his eagerness to produce more and more pace, he was not given any advice by skipper Afridi who also looked bewildered at the treatment meted out to his pace ace.
Afridi’s captaincy was also less than impressive, he insisted on bowling Mohammad Hafeez inside the first ten overs despite the rough treatment dished out to him by the blazing blades of Watson, Warner and Hussey. Only positive from the bowling came from the rising pace sensation Mohammed Aamer, who delivered five wicket maiden over, a feat never been achieved before.
When the men in green came out to bat they were left facing an improbable task of overhauling the 192 run target at an average of 9.6 runs per over. The start was less than ideal and within the first few overs Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt and Mohammad Hafeez had returned to the pavilion. The batsmen found the pace of Dirk Nannes and Shaun Tait too hot to handle on the St.Lucia wicket that was offering pace and bounce to the fastest bowling attack in the world.
Umer Akmal also fell after striking one six, at this juncture Shahid Afridi and Misbah Ul Haq tried their best to launch a counter attack, but it was too little too late, in fact the assault did not even last long enough to shape into a threat as Afridi perished to the 100 miler Shaun Tait, Misbah Ul Haq and Abdul Razzaq also fell soon after, as the men in green subsided in the 20th over to hand over a comfortable win to the Australians.
If the first performance is anything to go by, the Aussies are set to provide a serious threat to all title contenders in the T-20 world championship by making it clear they mean business this time around. The fearsome four pronged pace attack is as good as it, comprises of Tait, Nannes, Johnson the trio claimed 8 wickets in between them.
Cooling his heels in the dugout is another fearsome quick Ryan Harris, let’s see if the four take the field in Australia’s next encounter against the lowly Bangaldesh, if they do the tigers would be jumping for cover.
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