Cricket: Pakistan beat Australia by 23 runs in first T-20
Finally the green machine, after suffering throughout the year at the hands of the Australians managed to outclass their yellow opponents. A nail biting finish this time saw Pakistan emerging victorious.
The Pakistani bowlers stuck to their mission throughout the match as they consistently bowled wicket to wicket. Getting rid of the Australian batsmen at regular intervals and bowling them out for 144 runs while chasing Pakistan’s total of 167 runs.
The victory although cannot undo the loss suffered at the hands of Michael Hussey in the World Cup Twenty-20 semi final match just a couple of months ago. However, winning once again in a similar situation will do a whole lot of good for the moral of the Pakistani’s who will today again face the Australians in the 2nd match of the 2 match Twenty-20 series followed by two test matches.
The Edgbaston ground was, as expected, electrifying with Pakistani flags and green colours flying all around the ground. Reminiscent of Pakistan’s 2009 Twenty-20 World Cup matches which were held in England and where Pakistan went on to lift the trophy.
The Pakistani cricketers could certainly not have asked for more as playing their home series away from home due to security issues in Pakistan, the English Pakistani community came out in huge numbers to support their team.
The ground yesterday had a total of around 12,000 fans and one could easily see at-least 90 percent of the crowd was supporting Pakistan. Birmingham is a city that has one of the largest Pakistani populations in England.
Pakistan after winning the toss elected to bat first but could not get the start they hoped for. Shahzaib Hassan who looked promising in the warm up matches failed to deliver on the day that mattered most as he gave a simple catch to Hussey after facing only two balls and thus did not manage to trouble the scorers.
With Shahzaib gone early, the arrival of the elder of the two Akmal brothers, Kamran did bring in some momentum to the game as Kamran along with Salman Butt started to steady the ship, making quick runs and the odd boundary. But with the score at 45 runs a misunderstanding between the batsmen saw the dangerous Kamran Akmal getting run out and the ball after that Salman Butt also exited as he lifted the ball straight into the hands of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482.
But the cheers and the noise as Afridi came into bat were not heard for long as it was more of a lame duck day for Afridi, who was caught leg before wicket on the very first ball that he faced and thus had to depart leaving the fans, himself and of course the team in shock as Pakistan stood struggling at 47 runs and having lost 4 important wickets.
Pakistan was now looking fragile and many fans thought that this is it and the Pakistani’s were up against another humiliating defeat. But in came Pakistan’s knight in shining armour, the younger and mightier of the two Akmals, Umar Akmal. From the first ball that he faced, Umar looked in cracking form and out did his own personnel best performance to put up the fastest half century ever by a Pakistani in a Twenty-20 match and thus went on to make 64 runs in only 43 balls.
By the time the Australians managed to see the back of Umar Akmal, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 had already set a competitive total for their bowlers to defend.
But what did not go well in the batting department was undone by fine bowling. Mohammad Aamer and Saeed Ajmal shared 6 wickets amongst themselves. They bowled miserly and thus dried up Australia's run-rate. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in the end lost by 23 runs.
Tags: