Pakistan vs. South Africa 2nd T20 preview
The second and the final T20 of the two match-series
between South Africa and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 is about to begin at the neutral venue of Abu Dhabi, UAE. The matches are part of Pakistan’s home series neutral venue owing to security concerns of the Proteas.
The opening game of the trip was meant for the noble cause of fund raising for the flood victims of Pakistan. Pakistan lost the first T20 by six wickets and needs to strike back strongly and strategically in today’s game to get back into the series.
Johan Botha’s men on the other hand are on the top of their form after performing remarkably against listless http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 in T20 Internationals as well as the one-day series. South Africa won the three-match ODI series by 3-0 following a 2-0 T20 series win.
Elton Chigumbura’s men were not able to threaten the hosts with their strengths in any area of the game.
Everyone was expecting that Pakistan’s series against the Proteas on the neutral venues of UAE will ultimately help the trembling Pakistan team redeem itself in the international arena. But that did not happen yesterday, and the ‘Green Shirts’ fell a little
short of finding redemption.
It was an over-all disappointing performance from the men in green. They failed to hit some good strokes as well as a below par bowling performance except express pacer Shoaib Akhtar, who finished with two wickets.
Yesterday, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 had won the toss and opted to bat first. But Afridi’s decision was not at all supported by his batting line-up. None of the Pakistani player could score a decent tally of runs by playing a sound innings. Except for the skipper, Boom
Boom Afridi, none of the Pakistani batsman had a strike rate of T20 standards.
Afridi played a whirlwind cameo of a 7-ball 25 hitting three lofty sixes and a muscular boundary before mistiming his counterpart, Johan Botha, into the hands of Loots Bosman at the boundary. None of the Pakistan batsmen could manage to get past 30 and six
of the batsmen fell for single digit scores.
It was almost a one sided match throughout. Only Shoaib Akhtar’s two wickets in the third over changed the scenario of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173’s line-up had been comfortable throughout the
chase.
The batting section of Pakistan definitely needs a big improvement if they are targeting a victory today. At least two to three good partnerships are a must to drag the side towards setting a challenging total. If Pakistan’s batsmen succeed in setting a
target of 150 runs for the South Africans then the bowling department has the potential to grab the match.
Pakistan’s side has got some very good batsmen. The only thing required is commitment and determination. Also, some quick wickets in the start of the South African innings would be crucial to put the side in trouble.
Barring injury or illness, both the teams would stick to their yesterday’s playing XIs.
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