ICC T20 SEMI FINAL -I
June 18th, 2009 by | Posted in Sports Comments Off on ICC T20 SEMI FINAL -IPAKISTAN vs SOUTH AFRICA
The knock out stage has arrived and the first semi final was played between Pakistan and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat. They opened their batting with Kamran Akmal and Shazab Hasan. It was a dry track and Pakistan were 22 for 1 after 2 overs losing Hasan and later Kamran was caught by Morkel of Styen for 23 runs. Spin was introduced in the 8th over and both Van der Merve and Botha bowled well and after 11 overs Pakistan were batting at 86 for 2. Afridi played a gem of an innings and was caught by de Villiers b Duminy for a well made 51. Pakistan had nudged the ball around and managed to get singles also. The South African fielding was far from satisfactory and it appeared that the men in green were absent wherever the ball went. Boundaries flowed frequently. Shoab Malik was out for a well compiled 34 caught by Botha of Van der Merve. Younus and Razzak were not able to hit boundaries in the last five overs as the South Africans held them back and Pakistan could compile only 149 in the allotted 20 overs setting a target of 150 runs for SA to enter the final. (more…)