Sunday, June 21, 2009

Pakistan outplay SL for T20 World Cup




Shahid Afridi celebrates after hitting the winning runs
The result could not have been better than this for both Pakistan cricket team as well as for their nation. It was not a nail biting final like last time but it has given lots for Pakistani fans to cheer about for years to come. After Imran Khan, Younis Khan became the first captain to lead his team to win a major ICC Events.

This was Pakistan first major title in the 17 years. They last won the major event in 1992 World Cup under captaincy of Imran Khan in Australia.

Chasing the target of 139 runs to win, Pakistan chased down the score easily with six balls to spare to beat Sri Lanka by 8 Wickets and become ICC World Twenty20 Champions. Shahid Afridi once again played a match winning knock of unbeaten 54 runs of 40 balls and picked up one wicket in the game.

From the moment tournament most runs scorer T.Dilshan got out in the first over, Pakistan had a grip on the match. After deciding to bat first Sri Lanka lost their first wicket in the very first over of their inning and that to of Dilshan. From there on they lost their momentum and at one stage they were struggling at 70/6 in the 13th over.

But thanks to skipper Kumar Sangakkara (64 runs of 52 balls) and Angelo Mathews (35 runs of 24 balls) partnership of 68 runs of 42 balls which helped Sri Lanka to put decent fighting total on the board.

Pakistan started their run chase well with opener Kamran Akmal (37 runs of 28 balls) and S.Hasan (19 runs of 23 balls) gave decent start by putting 48 runs in 43 balls before Jayasurya broke through with his first delivery in the next over when he beat Akmal in the air with his left-arm spin and had him stumped for 37 off 28 balls.

M.Muralitharan then removed S.Hasan caught by Jayasurya to give Sri Lanka second breakthrough but Afridi and S.Mallik ensured no further hiccups. Both batted with calm and composure. They have put on unbeaten 76 runs partnership of just 57 balls which took Pakistan home amid loud celebrations from their fans in the stands.

Shahid Afridi was declared Player-of-the-Match for his super all-round performance both with bat and ball.

Tilakratne Dilshan was declared Player-of-the-Series for scoring the 317 runs in seven innings with an average of 52.83.

Umar Gul once again proved that he is the most dangerous bowlers when it comes to twenty20. Like 2007, he once again ended up with most number of wickets in ICC World twenty20 2009 with 13 wickets to his name.

T.Dilshan of Sri Lanka scored the most number of runs in the tournament with 317 runs with an average of 52.83 in seven innings that he has played.

Yuvraj Singh of India hits the most number of sixes (9) in the tournament.

Chris Gayle of West Indies hit the biggest six of the tournament with 105 meters.

Match Summary (Pakistan won by 8 Wickets)

Sri Lanka – 138/6 in 20 Overs

K.Sangakkara- 64* Angelo Mathews– 35*

Abdul Razzak– 3-0-20-3 S.Afridi- 4-0-20-1

Pakistan– 139/2 in 18.4 Overs

Shahid Afridi- 54* Kamran Akmal– 37

M.Muralitharan– 3-0-20-1 S.Jayasurya- 2-0-8-1

No comments:

Post a Comment