Pakistan thrash Australia with clinical performance by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	Australia v Pakistan
Player:	Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Kamran Akmal

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DateLine: 7th May 2009

 

First Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi with the leather demolished the Australian batting. Then Kamran Akmal with the willow thrashed the Kangaroo bowling attack to defeat Australia by seven wickets with more than three overs to spare, in the one off T20 international at Dubai.

 

Chasing a modest 109 to win, the Pakistani batting order started on a jittery note losing both openers Salman Butt (16) and Ahmed Shehzad (4) with just 23 on the board.

 

But then stand-in skipper Misbah-ul-Haq (24) joined wicketkeeper batsman Kamran Akmal (59) and both made sure that the team come out of trouble to finish on top.

 

Kamran Akmal was the more aggressor between the two hitting 5 boundaries and three sixes. The duo added 85 runs for the third wicket. Misbah fell to Hauritz with the scores tied. A ball later a wide by the same bowler finished the game in favour of Pakistan.

 

Earlier, Misbah who took over Pakistan reigns as skipper in place of a fever-struck Younis Khan, won the toss and invited Australia to bat first.

 

Both Aussie openers, stand-in skipper Brad Haddin (24) and Shane Watson (33) got the side off to to a flier. They added 42 runs in four overs but then a bad decision by umpire Aleem Dar changed the course of the match.

 

Dar gave Watson out lbw to Umar Gul off the medium-pacer’s first delivery when it was clear that the all-rounder had got a huge edge off the bat, before hitting his pad. With this wicket, Gul equalled Daniel Vettori's record for the highest number of wickets in T20 internationals. The Pakistan side was ecstatic because Watson had started to look extremely dangerous.

 

Post the decision, the script favoured only Pakistan as the bowlers started to rock the Aussie batting. Shahid Afridi struck twice in the first two balls of his spell to send back James Hopes (6) and Andrew Symonds (0) in consecutive deliveries. He finished his first over as a double wicket maiden. If that was not enough, he came back in the tenth over and scalped the prized wicket of David Hussey to leave the batting side tottering at 69/4.

 

The Australian side could not recover post this. Wickets kept falling regularly and the run-rate also came down at alarming pace.

 

For Pakistan, Gul's figures were quite outstanding. The right-arm medium-pacer gave away only eight runs and picked up four wickets in his alloted four overs. He gave away just one run more than the best ever in T20 internationals. He was ably supported by Afridi who took three wickets and Shoaib Malik who had two wickets in his kitty.