Ingram and Duminy guide South Africa to victory in first Twenty20 against Pakistan
A responsible partnership of 66 runs proved sufficient for the Proteas to secure a rather convincing victory in the end of the first Twenty 20 match at Sheikh Zayed stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Chasing Pakistan’s total of 120 South Africa made a nervous start losing three early wickets in the starting overs and were 26-3 in first five overs at one stage. Ingram and Duminy provided stability when it was required with a responsible innings of 46*
and 41 respectively, and guided their side to victory. It was the fifth consecutive victory for the Proteas in this format of the game.
Pakistan, who needed this victory to lift their spirits, found themselves in trouble from the start. It was another poor batting display by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 where none of its batsman managed to score a half century. There were a couple of scores of some substance
but apart from them no other batsman managed a big innings to accelerate the score in the end.
Pakistan had a good first over until the second over when Imran Farhat fell to a nothing shot off the bowling of Tsotsobe when he edged one to Graeme Smith at slip position. Soon after http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahzaib-Hasan-c2488 became Tsotsobe’s second victim after trying a big hit
but only managed to place it so high in the air that it gave enough time to J P Duminy to take a good catch in the end.
In the seventh over Pakistan lost their third wicket when Mohammad Hafeez was caught by Ingram at the sweeper cover position when he gave a straightforward catch to the fielder off the bowling of Botha.
Much was expected from Umar Akmal and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, who did manage to provide a brief stay of 29 runs. Afridi in his typical style played aggressively and hit three sixes off the bowling of Botha. He made 25 runs off just seven balls but when his presence
and experience was required till the end he fell to the bowling of Botha trying to hit his fourth six.
The prime feature of Pakistan’s innings was that they lost wickets consistently throughout their innings. They were not in any position of contributing any serious partnership and were not able to increase the run flow in the end.
Umar Akmal looked and gave an impression of playing a steady innings. But that didn’t last too long as he fell to Albie Morkel, when he went for a pull shot off a slow bouncer but was caught comfortably by Botha at mid-wicket.
Much was expected out of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972, who was recently made Test captain. He did seem to struggle but managed to hit some crucial boundaries in the last over off the bowling of Theron to post a run a ball target of 120.
For http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, Botha and particularly Tsotsobe were the pick of the bowlers with three wickets each. M Morkel was also economical and kept batsman quiet throughout his four overs.
South Africa had a rough start to their innings when they lost two quick wickets with the score at 16 in the second over. Shoaib Akhtar dismissed both Bosman and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887 in the same over.
Bosman to start his quota of boundaries played an aggressive shot, but straight to the fielder at cover point. Three balls later de Villiers was bowled off a mistimed pull shot. Graeme Smith was bowled by Mohammad Hafeezm in the fifth over. South Africa
was stuttering when they had lost 3 wickets for 26 runs.
Hope came from their middle order when JP Duminy and Ingram played steadily with a sensible 66 runs partnership between them. Both of these players looked in good form. They needed a partnership in the middle of the innings and worked the ball for singles
and important boundaries.
It was a crucial partnership of 66 runs as it involved the main overs of the innings. But for the batsmen chasing a relatively reachable and smaller target all they had to do was to stay at the wicket and keep the score board ticking.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JP-Duminy-c1742 hit 5 fours in his innings and was eager in keeping the runs flowing. Saeed Ajmal bowled impressively by keeping a tight line and length and not giving much room to score runs. Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq were a disappointment for Pakistan in
this match as both of them leaked 43 runs in the 4 over’s shared between them.
Afridi gave runs at a crucial time as both Duminy and Ingram scored boundaries off his bowling. 23 vital runs were given by Shahid Afridi in his two overs and it lifted the pressure off the Proteas.
Duminy fell in the 15th over off the bowling of Saeed Ajmal but the damage had been done. Ingram was also impressive throughout South Africa’s innings as he hit 4 fours and two sixes.
With almost a run a ball to chase Miller came after Duminy’s dismissal and scored some boundaries along with Ingram. South Africa reached their target in the 18th over with 10 balls to spare.
South Africa’s JP Duminy was named Man-of-the-Match for his responsible and sensible innings of 41.
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