http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Aims to Bounce Back in 2nd T20
After a listless performance in the first match of the two match T20 series, Shahid Afridi’s Pakistan team aims to bounce back in the second match of the series that is set to be played at Zayed stadium in Abu Dhabi today.
A visibly disappointed coach of Pakistan, fast bowling legend Waqar Younis claimed that his team was not good enough with the bat hence conceded an easy defeat.
"I don't think we have played to our potential, I don't think we batted that well, we were at least 25-30 runs short and in Twenty20 when you are these many runs short it's very difficult to come back.
"I am pleased with the bowling performance; I thought Pakistani bowlers really stuck in and they gave their best shot and I think there just wasn't enough runs on the board,” concluded Waqar.
The T20 Champions of 2009 gave another poor performance with the bat and for the third time in the running failed to post a sizeable total, crashing to a dismal total of 119 runs in the last over of their allocation of 20.
On the other hand the South African captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173 who recently took over the reins of the team after a dismal T20 World Championship campaign earlier in the year was an elated man.
"Yeah, we are very happy with it, obviously we did get off to a bit of stutter, three down earlier on, but our young guns have shown again tonight that they have played on what they learnt from the last months and they continued it, and credit to our batting
side who performed really well, we did get off to a bit of stutter, three down earlier on, but our young guns have shown again tonight that they have played on what they learnt from the last months," said Botha.
Meanwhile both teams would be aiming to score a win when they square up for the second and final act in the T20 series.
The match would be played at the same venue and the onus is on the Pakistanis to show some fight in what is a do or die match for them. Their recent record in the bilateral T20 series is poor, they were given a 2-0 drubbing in the two match contest against
England at Cardiff and have got off to another poor start in this series.
Their poor run has been attributed to the lack of skilled application by the batsmen who have generally reduced themselves to poor shots, in an attempt to scoring big runs.
The batsmen have set their sights on big totals yet have failed to bat out the allotted allocation of overs with their frontline batsmen. The bowlers have put in a good effort and were again impressive under the lights; the fight back against the Proteas
was led by Shoaib Akhtar who took two wickets in one over to set the cat amongst the pigeons.
However the South Africans cruised home with a super batting performance by their young guns, led by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JP-Duminy-c1742.
Left arm seamer Tsotsobe was the leading bowler for the Proteas, while Botha also claimed three wickets after facing a brutal assault at the hands of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 who clouted him for three sixes, including one that threatened to fly off to Abu Dhabi!
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