Pakistan’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wahab-Riaz-c95839 silences critics – ICC World Cup 2011 semi-final
Pakistan was off to the worst possible start to the second semi-final against the bitterest of rivals, India. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429 was punishing every Pakistani bowler that faced him. His assault on the bowlers was ended by the unlikeliest of sources, Wahab Riaz.
Bowling his first over, Riaz trapped Virender Sehwag with a fast delivery that had the umpire’s finger raised for a leg before wicket decision. Sehwag opted to review the decision, but it did not turn out in his favour, as Riaz showed a glimpse of what was
yet to come.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424 was the first to fall for nine runs after a beautiful delivery that seamed away from the batsmen.
The ball was in the air and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Umar-Akmal-c94595 made no mistake with the catch, as Wahab had another crucial break-through.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yuvraj-Singh-c98364 was hoping for a longer stay at the crease, but Wahab had other ideas. Yuvraj tried to defend his wicket, but the ball beat him all ends up and crashed into the stumps. Riaz had turned the game on its head in the space of two balls.
With Yuvraj’s departing for a golden duck the Indian batsmen now had to reassess their plan, as Indian Captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mahendra-Singh-Dhoni-c73820 made his way to the crease.
Wahab was taken out of the attack by skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 for safe-keeping for the crucial closing-overs. He added another prized scalp to his collection, that of Dhoni when another superb delivery had him out leg before wicket.
The Pakistani bowler had silenced all his crickets by this stage and kept his side in the game that seemed lost in the early stages. Wahab however was not finished. Given the responsibility of bowling the last over, Wahab kept his cool and gave away only
four runs.
More importantly he took his fifth wicket of the match when the faintest of edges off Zaheer Khan’s bat was caught by wicket-keeper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ashish-Nehra-c46293 run out off his own bowling in the penultimate ball of the innings.
In the end his bowling figures of five wickets for 46 runs in the allotted 10-overs may just have given http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 a chance to finally beat the Indian team and book a place in the World Cup final.
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