Pakistan take home the biggest prize of all
Afridi holds his hands aloft after hitting the winning runs — AP photo.
Source: Dawn.com
LONDON: Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets to win the Twenty20 World Cup at Lord’s on Sunday.
An exceptional bowling performance was followed by some sensible batting to see Pakistan emerge triumphant in what was a match of tremendous importance for the embattled country.
Pakistan Innings:
Once again, Afridi came to the party with the bat when it counted most. A calm 54 off just 40 balls saw Pakistan take home the trophy with an over and three balls to spare.
Chasing 139 for victory, Akmal and Hassan started the innings well; putting on an assured 39 run partnership in the first six overs, in the face of some disciplined Sri Lankan bowling, before Jayasuriya beat Akmal’s charge down the wicket to have him stumped.
Afridi strode out to the crease and tapped his first few balls for sensible singles, while Hassan began to go for his shots.
The young batsman managed to get the better of Ajantha Mendis, but could only top-edge a sweep off Muralidaran. To leave Pakistan 63/2 after nine overs.
Afridi and Malik continued to push the singles, with Afridi hitting the odd big shot to keep the run-rate within reach, bringinging up his second consecutive fifty off just 45 balls.
Sri Lankan Innings:
A Razzaq special rocked the Sri Lankan top-order, with Aamir, Gul, and Afridi chipping in to leave the batting in tatters at 70/6, before a Sangakkara fifty and some brilliant hitting from Matthews brought the boys in blue steaming back into the game to set Pakistan a very competitive 139 to win.
A fiery opening burst from Aamir accounted for the dangerous Dilshan in the very first over of the innings — four quick short balls in a row pushed the right-hander on the back foot, while the fifth saw him top-edge a pull to short fine leg where Shahzaib took a good catch.
Not to be out-done, the experienced Razzaq pitched one up to the big-hitting Mubarak, who skied a simple catch to mid-off.
Jayasuriya smashed Razzaq for a six and a four, but went for one shot too many, under-edging a full delivery onto his stumps.
It was just a few deliveries later, the all-rounder threw up a length ball outside the off-stump, and Jayawardene steered it straight into the wide slip in place.
Kumar Sangakkara and Chamara Silva steadied the ship, concentrating on the singles and trying to set themselves to bat through the innings. However Silva was not good enough to keep out Umar Gul; pulling a short ball to short mid-wicket.
In the very next over Udana failed to keep out a Shahid Afridi googly, being clean-bowled to leave the Sri Lankans deep in trouble.
Sangakkara played a real captain’s knock, making 62 from 54 balls, and was ably assisted by some great hitting towards the end from Angelo Mattews (35 from 24 balls), to help Sri Lanka reach 138/6 off their twenty overs.
SRI LANKA: Tillekeratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Silva, Jehan Mubarak, Angelo Mathews, Isuru Udana, Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis.
PAKISTAN: Kamran Akmal, Shahzaib Hasan, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan (captain), Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Aamir.
