Pakistan crumble in the heat at Cardiff
An abysmal fielding display helped by an ordinary batting display cost Pakistan the first of the two match T20 series against England at Cardiff.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482’s men who were rocked by one of the biggest sporting scandals ever last week allowed a clear opportunity of winning slip away through an atrocious display, which saw them drop two of the easiest chances ever, as the hosts cruised to a 5 wicket win after struggling at 62/5 at one stage during their 127 run chase on a sluggish Sophia Gardens wicket.
The start of the match was delayed due to heavy rain in the morning that dampened the outfield. After winning the toss, the English captain Paul Collingwood decided to bowl first in a bid to utilise the conditions and make inroads in the fragile Pakistan batting line-up.
The Pakistani openers Kamran Akmal and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahzaib-Hasan-c2488 started aggressively taking the attack to the English bowlers. Just when it seemed that Akmal was destined for a big one, the wicket-keeper skied an attempted pull into the hands of the fielder positioned at mid-on.
Shahzaib Hasan and the veteran Mohammad Yousuf who was playing only his second T20 international kept the score board moving with some deft shots and powerful drives.
However, Yousuf struggled to keep the momentum going and eventually holed out to Eoin Morgan off England’s best bowler of the day, Graeme Swann.
The right hander struck three boundaries in his 26 run knock that came off only 21 balls.
He was soon followed into the dug out by Shahzaib Hasan whose frustration got the better of him, and an ungainly hoic resulted in a stumping for wicket-keeper Davies off Swann.
Fawad Alam was surprisingly promoted in the batting order, yet the move backfired big time as the southpaw struggled against the spinners and the seamers as well, swinging his bat from the hip ungainly.
The left hander who had struck 97 in the warm up match against Somerset was finally put out of his misery by left-arm spinner Michael Yardy after he stuttered for a 29 ball 20 run knock.
Even the usually entertaining Shahid Afridi struggled on the sluggish wicket and the subtle change of pace of the English bowlers.
“BOOM BOOM” was dropped on his way to an unbeaten 16 off 14 balls, while only a little cameo from the ever dependable Umar Akmal resulted in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 posting a reasonable target of 127 runs for the hosts.
The hosts had dug a big hole for themselves in reply, at one stage they were reeling with half the side gone and only 62 runs on the board.
Opening bowlers Shoaib Akhar and Umar Gul had taken three wickets amongst them while Afridi had dismissed two more.
The English team was rescued by Eoin Morgan and Yardy, who played intelligent cricket in a crisis situation, yet the two were indebted to another shoddy display of fielding by the Pakistanis. There woes were typified when, after conceding a boundary through his legs at the fine leg position, the extremely slow Shoaib Akhtar dropped a sitter at short third man of Afridi with Morgan being the lucky batsman.
The Irishman made the visitors pay big time as he ran away with the game with nearly three overs to spare, courtesy an unbroken 69 runs stand for the sixth wicket with Yardy.
Man of the match Yardy remained undefeated on 35 while Morgan made 38 runs, the second match of the series is set to be played on the 7th of this month at the same venue.
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