Pakistan knock South Africa out of World Twenty20
Pakistan have revived their slim hopes of a World Twenty20 semi-final spot with an 11-run victory over South Africa, but still need the result to fall their way in today’s remaining match between England and New Zealand.
While Pakistan wait and hope for an England victory, South Africa’s Caribbean competition has reached a disappointing end, with one win in three Super Eight matches and a net run-rate that put them out of semi-final contention at the conclusion of today’s match against Pakistan.
Shahid Afridi’s decision to bat first and put the pressure on South Africa for the chase in their final Super Eight match looked like it was about to backfire when, after five overs, Pakistan’s top order had collapsed to an unhealthy 18-3.
It was an insipid start from a side that looked to slipping down a well oiled slope out of the competition, but one that was made all the more difficult by some tight bowling by the South Africans, who had omitted paceman Morne Morkel for the match.
The fightback began when Umar Akmal joined brother Kamran at the crease, and while runs were still initially hard to come by, the introduction of Roelof van der Merwe into the attack in the eighth over yielded the first six of Pakistan’s innings, and 14 runs in total.
The brothers hadn’t quite batted Morkel’s replacement out of the attack after his first over, but the 19 they took from his second over, which included three more sixes before Kamran (37 from 33 balls) fell on the final ball, ensured van der Merwe did not get a chance to bowl his full four overs.
Joined by Afridi in the middle, Umar (51 from 33 balls) set about guiding his side to a respectable total as he reached his half century, which included two fours and four sixes, before his attempt to send Charl Langeveldt over the boundary rope landed in Herschelle Gibbs’ hands.
Three deliveries later, Langeveldt bowled Afridi (30 from 18 balls) to put a dampener on Pakistan’s hopes of a big final three overs. And so it proved, with Pakistan managing only 16 runs from the final 18 balls, while Langeveldt took his fourth wicket of the match (to finish with figures of 4-19).
In the end though Afridi’s side set what, in light of their poor start, was a respectable total of 148-7.
South Africa’s reply started in a similarly slow fashion, as Gibbs joined Graeme Smith out in the middle at the start of the innings in a bit of a top order experiment, but the 36-year-old made just three runs before Misbah-ul-Haq held onto a well-hit pull shot at midwicket, in an early sign that Pakistan’s fielding fumbles might have abated for this match.
Soon after, Afridi accepted a simple catch from his South African counterpart to send Smith back to the pavilion for 13 from as many deliveries. That left Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers in charge of the run chase, but the pair struggled to get out of first gear and the Proteas were left a run shy of a half-century after 10 overs had been bowled.
Something, it was clear, had to give and that was Kallis’ wicket as Umar took the diving catch to dismiss him for 22 from 21 deliveries just as the burly batsman was looking to pick up the pace. Duminy (three) lasted just five balls before he hit a rain-maker, which was duly snaffled by Khalid Ratif, bringing Mark Boucher to the crease with de Villiers.
Consecutive sixes brought up de Villiers’ half-century, but his attempt to scoop Saeed Ajmal over the wicketkeeper’s head the next over proved a little too cute as it headed straight up into the air and down into Kamran’s gloves.
The end of de Villiers’ innings on 53 (from 41 balls) also spelled the end of South Africa’s hopes of making a late surge towards the 149-run target, but left Pakistan in the box seat to secure their first victory in the Super Eights, a feat which they duly achieved with an 11-run buffer.
With their World Twenty20 semi-final hopes now registering a pulse, all that’s left for Pakistan to do is to cheer on England – who can now be certain of a place in the semis – against New Zealand in the remaining Group E match of the competition.
Tags: