ICC World T-20: Pakistan beat the odds as South Africa eliminated

The Super 8

Kamran Akmal painstakingly fought to accumulate runs as Butt and Latif fell apart in succession. A young lad all of 19 years, came, knocked off a flying 50, which showed his temperament which is improving with every game. Yes, we are talking about none other than young Umar Akmal.

Umar Akmal has put his hand up and has shown a lot of promise, he has delivered on the faith which his captain and coach have put in him. Captain Afridi contributed too with a fiery 30 off just 18 balls. Langeveldt shone with the ball and snared 4 wickets for 19 runs. The total did not look too daunting. 149 in 20 overs was quite gettable.

Pakistan Innings			R	B	4s	6s	SR
	Kamran Akmal (W)	c H Gibbs b R van der Merwe	37	33	3	2	112.12
	Salman Butt	c G Smith b D Steyn	2	4	0	0	50.00
	Khalid Latif	c D Steyn b J Kallis	7	9	1	0	77.78
	Mohammad Hafeez	lbw b C Langeveldt	1	5	0	0	20.00
	Umar Akmal	c H Gibbs b C Langeveldt	51	33	2	4	154.55
	Shahid Afridi (C)	b C Langeveldt	30	18	4	1	166.67
	Abdul Razzaq	not out	11	10	0	0	110.00
	Misbah-ul-Haq	c AB de Villiers b C Langeveldt	3	7	0	0	42.86
	Abdur Rehman	not out	2	1	0	0	200.00
	Mohammad Aamer
	Saeed Ajmal
	Extras	(b 0,lb 1,w 3, nb 0)	4
	Total	(7 wickets; 20 overs)	148

Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
Albie Morkel	4	0	28	0	7.00
Dale Steyn	4	0	26	1	6.50
Charl Langeveldt	4	0	19	4	4.75
Jacques Kallis	4	0	28	1	7.00
Johan Botha	2	0	13	0	6.50
oelof van der Merwe	2	0	33	1	16.50

South Africa Innings			R	B	4s	6s	SR
	Herschelle Gibbs	c M-ul-Haq b A Razzaq	3	9	0	0	33.33
	Graeme Smith (C)	c S Afridi b A Rehman	13	13	1	0	100.00
	Jacques Kallis	c U Akmal b S Ajmal	22	21	2	0	104.76
	AB de Villiers	c K Akmal b S Ajmal	53	41	1	2	129.27
	JP Duminy	c K Latif b A Rehman	3	5	0	0	60.00
	Mark Boucher (W)	lbw b S Ajmal	12	13	1	0	92.31
	Albie Morkel	not out	7	8	0	0	87.50
	Johan Botha	st K Akmal b S Ajmal	19	8	4	0	237.50
	Roelof van der Merwe	not out	2	2	0	0	100.00
	Dale Steyn
	Charl Langeveldt
	Extras	(b 0,lb 1,w 2, nb 0)	3
	Total	(7 wickets; 20 overs)	137	(6.85 runs per over)

Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
Abdul Razzaq	3	0	16	1	5.33
Mohammad Aamer	4	0	32	0	8.00
Abdur Rehman	4	0	35	2	8.75	(w 2)
Mohammad Hafeez	1	0	5	0	5.00
Shahid Afridi	4	0	21	0	5.25
Saeed Ajmal	4	0	27	4	6.75

But the South Africans looked in no hurry to get to the target. They played a slow, waiting game. Only AB de Villiers shone with the bat with a fighting 53 but the rest of the batsmen flattered to deceive. Saeed Ajmal quickly got 4 wickets for 26 runs- he bowled his heart out. Captain Afridi made some good strategic fielding position changes which choked South Africa, first of runs and now out of the World Cup.

Pakistan were still is in the running for the semi finals spot. The dejection on the South African team’s faces was a familiar sight. A World Cup title eludes them yet again. Over to the England- New Zealand match to see if the Pakistani prayers will be answered- which are incidentally for the English team’s victory. The gods favored the Pakistan team as the English side beat New-Zealand by three wickets to push Pakistan into the semis along with them.