England vs. Pakistan - 2nd Twenty20: First Innings Report – Pakistan Steamrolled for 89 all-out
It was one of the most pedestrian performances by Pakistan in Twenty20 cricket (surprise, surprise). The former T20 world champions clearly looked mentally drained out and under stress from the whole spot-fixing controversy surrounding the team. There was no planning, no focus and no determination in the first innings of the 2nd T20 against England. Pakistan ended at 89 all out and it would be an uphill task for them to defend such a modest total against an in-form England team.
Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi won the toss and elected to bat first; he claimed that the pitch was dry and his team would be able to make good use of it. Whereas the English captain Paul Collingwood thought the pitch was wet and he would have preferred to bowl even if he had won the toss. One of the two was to be proven wrong.
Pakistan opened with wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahzaib-Hasan-c2488, and it was a case of déjà vu. Kamran Akmal started the innings with a boundary and smashed 11 runs from the first over. However, that is where the fun ended for the visitors.
From the 2nd over, English bowlers adapted the strategy of bowling short, and not surprisingly, it worked. Kamran Akmal, after facing 3 dot balls from Bresnan, skied one straight up and was caught by Graeme Swann (feeling that déjà vu yet? This is almost exactly how he was sent back to the pavilion in the first game.) Mohammad Yousuf came in at number 3 and did not look comfortable at all. He was also the victim of a short ball (Bresnan) after contributing just 4 runs. In came Umar Akmal, the man who many believe has the most talent in the team, but just cannot put it to use.
Shahzaib (3 off 8 balls) was also getting frustrated by the constant short-pitch bowling and in trying an inventive shot played one of his hips to the wicketkeeper Davies off the bowling of Stuart Broad. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 (2 off 4 balls) was in next, and the captain looked to be in a hurry to be somewhere, after slashing one over midwicket where he got away. He once again played a rash stroke just slogging at one outside the off-stump after scoring just 2 runs. His delivery was caught by Morgan off the bowling of Broad.
What followed was quite painful to watch: Mohammad Hafeez (14 off 32 balls) hung around for a while but was not able to get anything away. Umar Akmal (17 off 13 balls) tried his best and smashed 2 big sixes off Swann, but in an effort to go for a 3rd one, missed one and was bowled for 17 runs. Four overs later, Hafeez was the victim of a run-out (Sidebottom/Swann.) Fawad Alam had a ‘guest appearance’ on the pitch before he was sent back to the pavilion for a duck, caught by wicketkeeper Davies off a delivery from Swann in the same over.
Abdul Razzaq hung around with the tail but just could not get one in the middle, and eventually also skied one in the air and was caught by Yardy from a delivery by Ryan Sidebottom (18th over) for a painful 11 runs from 20 balls. Umar Gul was out on the very next ball (16 off 13 balls), making it two-in-two for Sidebottom.
Shoaib Akhtar was Bresnan’s third victim; after smashing a wonderful boundary in the second ball of the 19th over, he tried to repeat the feat but was bowled by Bresnan; the ball crashing into the middle stump and signifying another humiliating loss for the visitors.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 were all out for just 89 runs (in the 19th over), and look set to end the 2-match series with a 2-0 defeat. Pakistan should pray for divine intervention; otherwise, the match will be over in the blink of an eye.
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