Pakistan v Ireland – Mohammad Hafeez guides his team towards victory
Pakistan thrashed http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751 by a handsome margin of seven wickets with more than 22 overs to spare in the first of the two match One Day International (ODI) series at Civil Service Cricket Club, Stormont, Belfast.
The star of the show in the batting department was opener, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Hafeez-c76898, who struck a brilliant half-century, to secure an easy win for the visitors.
Chasing a very low target of 97 runs, Pakistan was off to a slow but steady start through their openers, Hafeez and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taufeeq-Umar-c92889. They made sure that their team does not face any early hiccups in this run chase.
However, Hafeez started to play some delightful shots once he had settled down and increased the innings run rate for Pakistan.
Both of them accumulated 73 runs for the first wicket partnership and threw the home team out of the competition. However, Pakistani fans would have liked them to have scored their runs a bit quickly.
After the departure of Taufeeq, the Cornered Tigers faced a mini collapse, as they lost three wickets in quick succession, before http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755.
Hafeez remained the top scorer for his 52, which came off 84 deliveries, in which he struck seven fours and a six. His opening partner was even more defensive, as he made 23 off 62 balls and just struck a single boundary in his knock.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Alex-Richard-Cusack-c43129 was the only Irish bowler, who troubled the Pakistani batsmen, as he picked up all the three wickets to have fallen in the Pakistani innings after giving away 13 runs in his five overs.
Left arm fast bowler, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Junaid-Khan-c77037, was named man of the match for his devastating spell of bowling earlier in the day, as he grabbed four scalps to break the back of the home team’s batting.
Pakistan have experienced all sorts of problems with Ireland in the past. Ireland defeated Pakistan in a group match of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 Cricket World Cup 2007 in the Caribbean and the Cornered Tigers failed to qualify for the next round.
However, Misbah ul Haq and company did not find any difficulty in dismantling the minnows in their most recent encounter.
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