World Twenty20: Pakistan knock out favourites South Africa in semi-final
Trent Bridge: Pakistan (149-4) beat South Africa (142-5) by seven runs.
By Simon Briggs at Trent Bridge
Published: 9:02PM BST 18 Jun 2009
In Twenty20 cricket, the captains always say that a big performance from one individual can be decisive.
And Pakistan certainly got thaton Thursday evening from Shahid Afridi, their all-action all-rounder, who interrupted South Africa's previously serene progress through this tournament.
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World Twenty20: Umar Gul puts Pakistan in ascendancy after five-wicket blitzIf you sat down and tried to work out the ideal 20-over cricketer from first principles, then you might come up with someone like Afridi. He is a broad-shouldered brute of a batsman, whose favourite practice routine involves lashing throw-downs into the roof of the net.
And then he comes on with his rapid wrist-spinners, which vary in pace between 40 and 60mph, and are devilishly difficult to read from the hand.
Unusually for Afridi, he batted for 34 balls on Thursday without clearing the ropes once. This was a reflection of a tricky pitch, which offered appreciable turn and some variation in pace. But he still managed to cudgel 51 runs - his first half-century in all international cricket for 28 innings.
Pakistan's total of 149 for four might not sound like much. But given he difficulty of the conditions, South Africa knew they would have to make a fast start, because the middle-overs were going to be testing against the spinners.
In fact, they only got to the end of the sixth over before Afridi came on and rattled one straight through Herschelle Gibbs's defences. In the next over he persuaded AB de Villiers, South Africa's most dangerous batsman to drag one onto his stumps. And when he had finished, with figures of 4-0-16-2, the game was Pakistan's to lose.
All the pre-publicity for this match had painted it as a conflict between art and science, method and improvisation, with South Africa providing the rigour and Pakistan the unpredictable inspiration.Yet Younis Khan's team showed that they are more than just a talented bunch of sloggers.
Pakistan controlled their innings to the finest detail. Younis said before the match that 150 would be a decent total to set, and that was precisely what happened.
It might have seemed a little wasteful to lose only four wickets in the 20 overs, especially when you are struggling to find the boundary or put together a sequence of heavy-scoring overs. But one of the great skills in one-day cricket is to judge what is a good total. Pakistan made their decision early, and they stuck to it.
The first four overs of the game were the most frenetic, as the openers went off like a pair of shaken-up coke cans. In Shahzaib Hasan's case, the eruption didn't last long: he skied an attempted pull to mid-on off the second ball he faced.
At the other end, Kamran Akmal did manage to disturb Wayne Parnell's apparently Zen-like calm, taking 14 runs off his first over. But Akmal was so desperate to flog everything that he could have been mistaken for an insurance salesman. It was no surprise when he, too, hooked a catch straight up in the air.
Pakistan now sent in Shoaib Malik to stabilise the innings - a task he achieved rather too well, if such a thing is possible, by collecting only 13 runs off his first 21 balls.
The scoring rate would have got completely bogged down if they hadn't had 'Boom boom' Afridi unfurling some of his trademark muscle shots at the other end. In his best passage of play, Afridi took four boundaries off successive balls from off-spinner Johan Botha.
The first three were all virtually identical: lofted drives powered over extra-cover. But the last showed a touch of delicacy, as he opened the face and ran the ball down to third man.
Geoff Lawson, who was Pakistan's coach when they reached the final of the last World Twenty20 in 2007, reckons it is the best Afridi has played for two years. And what an occasion to do it on.
After all the troubles that have afflicted Pakistan cricket since that near-miss in South Africa, it is good to see them back in the final.
World Twenty20: Pakistan knock out favourites South Africa in semi-final - Telegraph
Pakistan from underdogs to now HOT HOT favourites Inshallah we will be lifting another trophy soon.
I am so happy and so surprised how we have won this match, incredible performance and great teamplay. I was in fact very pessimistic because of their performances but after I've seen that they can bring performance for their country I am of course supporting Pakistan, I was always supporting Pakistan, but not always this team, you get wht I want to say?
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