Pakistan has suffered a shocking defeat against Auckland in the practice Twenty20 match played in Auckland today.
The world number one team in this format of the game played a full strength side but were unable to trouble the leading domestic team of New Zealand. The confidence of the Pakistan team would certainly be bruised after this loss.
Pakistan had been put into bat after Auckland won the toss and chose to field. The visitors were in trouble straight away after losing two wickets in the very first over. The Captain of the side http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 who opened the batting failed to make an impression
as he got out for just one run.
The team then provided some resistance when the veteran batsman Younis Khan and Umar Akmal steadied the innings. Both the players took the score to 45 before Younis was caught for 18 runs. Younis was playing with a good strike rate and hit one towering six
but he failed to capitalise on his start.
Soon after Younis Khan, Fawad Alam and Umar Akmal were also dismissed leaving Pakistan at 52 runs for the loss of six wickets. Abdul Razzaq and Umar Gul offered some resistance but that was not enough as all the team got out for 91 runs in just 17.4 overs.
The only positive sign for Pakistan was that Younis Khan and Umar Akmal showed some form and apart from that, there were no positives in the batting.
For Auckland, the left-arm medium fast bowler Michael Bates was impressive. He grabbed three wickets in three overs and just gave away 11 runs. He was well supported by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Roneel-Hira-c2365 who also grabbed a couple of wickets.
In reply, Auckland achieved the total in the 14th over. The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Auckland-c766 openers played well and gave the start that the team needed. Martin Guptill remained unbeaten on 28 and helped his team to victory. Collin Grandhomme scored 20 off just 12 balls
to give a flying start to Auckland.
Shoaib Akhtar and Saeed Ajmal took a couple of wickets each but their efforts went in vain as the batting collapsed for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755. The Greens will look to bat well against New Zealand in the first match which will be played on the Boxing Day.
On the other hand, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 would be very much confident of a good show against Pakistan after their dismal performance in the recent series.
Tags: