Pakistan vs. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 – 2nd T20: Abysmal Pakistan capitulates again
Pak 120/9 in 20 overs
Former South African captain Kepler Wessels summed up Pakistan cricket brilliantly on the eve of the second match of the T20 series in UAE, as he claimed that there was simply no planning in their ranks and sheer reliance on instincts
was the reason for them imploding time and again in recent years.
Once again it was a replay of the opening match, and TV audiences around the world must have wondered if they were watching repeat telecast of the match on Tuesday as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482’s men crashed to another poor total against South
Africa in front of a boisterous Abu Dhabi crowd.
It was a similar story once again, as the Pakistani batsmen who looked worth a million dollars barely a week ago in a domestic T20 tournament in Lahore crashed like helpless school boys in perfect batting conditions at the Sheikh
Zayed stadium.
The first one to go was http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahzaib-Hasan-c2488 who scooped the ball in the air, which was more reminiscent of an old fashioned hockey clearance then a shot from an opening batsman. Shahzaib who clouted more than 200 runs in the domestic
T20 tournament at an average of more than 100 runs fell for only 6.
Mohammad Hafeez looked confident in his breezy 14 before chopping a quick delivery from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Morne-Morkel-c77722 onto his stumps. The score was 29 at this stage and a spectacular collapse ensued as the ungainly Imran Farhat (9), Umar Akmal
(5) and skipper Shahid Afridi (3) perished leaving the men in green struggling big time.
Suddenly, from 29/1, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 had crashed to 39/5. Abdul Razzaq and Misbah-ul-haq then sat about the task of repairing the damage. The two veterans were conservative in their approach and did not target a big shot initially. Razzaq
finally realised that the men in green were in desperate need of some quick runs; he tonked two sixes in quick succession – the first coming off http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173, followed by a monster over long off, of Albie Morkel.
However to the dismay of the Pakistani fans he perished the very next ball as his drive landed in the hands of Rusty Theron at mid off. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Razzaq-c84421 scored 25 runs off 29 balls.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 did not seem to learn any lessons from his knock yesterday and kept delaying his assault on the bowlers until his team almost ran out of overs. He finally succeeded in breaking the shackles in the penultimate over
and scored a six and a four of consecutive deliveries.
He, along with Zulqarnain Haider pushed Pakistan to a well below par total of 120 runs, a score that the Proteas should not have many problems in hunting down. Misbah top scored with 33 runs for the beleaguered men in green while
Theron captured 3 wickets for the Proteas in the last over to return with a haul of 4 wickets.
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