Cricket Update: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 thrashes Pakistan again in Abu Dhabi at the Twenty20 international cricket match
At this rate, the upcoming month is set to be full of toil for Pakistan as for a second night in the running they capitulate against a disciplined and professional South African team, to surrender the two match T20 series 2-0.
The Proteas would be feeling that they are still up against a minnow, after their thumping wins that continue their golden run from home. They were on top of their game against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 and have continued the trend here as the Pakistanis crash easily.
The two T20s had amazing similarities, in both games http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 posted almost the same score and lost them both by the same margin of 6 wickets.
The batsmen failed to fire in both games, falling to tame shots on a wicket that held no demons in it. Both times, they got off to a roaring start yet imploded spectacularly.
They were so woeful in the second game that the performance in the opening match where they scored a run less than the 120 total they gathered yesterday looks slightly better.
In the second match, Pakistan was down in the dumps at 39/5 with the top order wiped away in an abject fashion.
The captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 was disappointed with his team’s performance and the usually outspoken Pathan had a few words to say as some sections of the crowd booed him.
"I'm very disappointed. I was expecting a lot, especially from myself, but I couldn't produce in these two matches. I don't know why I played these shots. I know how important my batting is for my team. I know my team is very good in ODIs and we will
definitely come back then."
It is hard to believe that this is the same Pakistani team that was on the top of the world in the T20 format with consistent performances from its batmen and bowlers.
Last year they had pulled off an amazing streak of six consecutive wins in the format which was a record then, however they have come a full circle now and the defeat yesterday is their fourth consecutive in the crash, bang and wallop format.
Meanwhile, the South African captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173 was delighted with his team’s performance in the match and claimed that his team was totally focused on the job at hand and did not worry about the off-field drama and controversies that surrounded the Pakistani
team upon their arrival in UAE.
At the post match presentation, Botha said "Very happy with the performance. Afridi bowled really well, Hafeez was brilliant, and Ingram came in and took the pressure off our shoulders. Hopefully we can continue our momentum on Friday and Sunday."
The series has been a real tonic for Botha, who took over the captaincy in the shortest format from Graeme Smith after his disappointing leadership led to the defeat at the T20 World Championship in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 earlier in the year.
Smith had claimed that he wanted to relinquish the captaincy and hand it over to a fresh mind and Botha has done precisely the same for his team.
The confident Proteas have the momentum for the 50 overs series that starts on Friday with a day and night game at the same venue. They trounced the Zimbabweans 3-0 in the ODI series at home, posting a mammoth total of 399 runs in the final match of the
series.
They have unearthed three exciting youngsters in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/David-Miller-c53105, Rusty Theron and Colin Ingram in the series and the trio was impressive in the two T20s at Abu Dhabi.
Theron was the man of the match yesterday, claiming three wickets in the final over of the Pakistani innings, finishing with the haul for 4 wickets in the match.
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