Pakistan Fly Past South Africa in to the Cricket Finals

Pakistan have caused the biggest upset of this years Twenty20 World Cup by beating South Africa by 7 runs at Trent Bridge to hand the Proteas yet more heartache.

Pakistan entered the World T20 final consecutively for the second time after they defeated tournament-favourites South Africa by 7 runs in the semi-final in Nottingham.

Earlier, Pakistan relied on Shahid Afridi’s (51) T20 maiden half-century to post a competitive 149 for four in their Twenty20 World semi-final match against South Africa on Thursday.

Electing to bat on a dry Trent Bridge pitch, Pakistan recovered from early setback of losing two wickets inside the third over through Afridi and Shoaib Malik (34 off 39 balls) but lost way at the death to end their innings below 150.

Afridi, whose 34-ball blitzkrieg included eight fours, and Malik repaired the Pakistan innings by sharing a 67-run stand for the third wicket from 58 balls only to see it go waste at the final overs.

Younis’ (24 not out) decision to bat first also seemed to have backfired as Pakistan lost their first two wickets inside the third over at 28.

Young opener Shahzaib Hasan did not trouble the scorers by returning to the dug out for a duck in the second over bowled by Wayne Parnell.

His opening partner Kamran Akmal (23 off 12 balls) though was in his aggressive best hitting two fours off the opening over bowled by Dale Steyn and another couple off boundaries off Parnell.

The Pakistani wicketkeeper batsman hit a stunning six off Steyn but was out next ball trying another big shot off the same bowler.

Pakistan were reasonably well-placed at 47 for two after the sixth over but the ran rate slowed down with the operation of slow bowlers as they reached 68 for two at the half-way mark.

Afridi then started his blitzkrieg and hit four fours in a row off Johan Botha who conceded 18 runs in the 11th over. Just as Afridi reached his fifty off 32 balls, he was out to a smart change of bowling by Graeme Smith as JP Duminy removed him.

South Africa though bowled brilliantly at the death conceding just 29 runs from the last five overs to restrict Pakistan to below 150 mark.

Parnell, Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe and Duminy took a wicket apiece.

Source: Cricket20