Afridi, half-centurions star in Pakistan’s thumping win

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

If not with the bat, he can do it with the ball. Shahid Afridi would have been twitching in his seat, waiting for his turn to bat during the batting Powerplay, but some excellent batting by Misbah ul Haq and Umar Akmal ensured that he had only time to score seven runs

By Suneer Chowdhary

Hambantota, February 23, 2011

If not with the bat, he can do it with the ball. Shahid Afridi would have been twitching in his seat, waiting for his turn to bat during the batting Powerplay, but some excellent batting by Misbah ul Haq and Umar Akmal ensured that he had only time to score seven runs. Instead, he overturned his bad run of form in 2010, when he had averaged 45 with the ball, to pick up a five-wicket haul against Kenya at Hambantota.

And after exhibiting a minor improvement with the bat, Kenya were bowled out for 112, chasing a mammoth 318 for the win.

 

The Kenyans were provided a solid start by their opening batsmen, Seren Waters and Maurice Ouma – promoted up the order after regular opener Alex Obanda was dropped. The pair added 37 for the first wicket and while one can be sure that going for the win would have been the last thing on their mind, the Kenyan side would have wanted to put up a better show than last time.

 

Instead, once Waters was run-out off a direct hit from Umar Akmal for 17, there was none bar Collins Obuya who could stand the furious variations of Afridi. He did not spin the ball too much, as is usually his wont, but there were some subtle and not-so-subtle variations in pace that pegged Kenya back.

 

Steven Tikolo tried to treat Afridi like an orthodox spinner by dancing down the track but was bowled when the ball barely turned, while Tanmay Mishra, Jimmy Kamande and Thomas Odoyo seemed as clueless against his pace as Kenya had been against Hamish Bennett. Obuya was the only batsman who managed to connect but it spooned up for an easy catch to the long-on and Afridi had five.

 

Pakistan had started off rather slowly after winning the toss and batting first and what added to their early woes were the couple of quick wickets. However, that was all the good times that Kenya had in the game as there was some matured, but aggressive batting by the rest of the order to get Pakistan to 317/7 in their 50 overs.

It started with Kamran Akmal going after the bowling and getting to a half century before Younis Khan joined in for his 50. Both departed in reasonably quick time but Misbah-ul-Haq, who has had an amazing last couple of months, joined in the fun with a half-century, inspiring Umar Akmal into overcoming his form issues.

 

Akmal became the fourth to get to a score of more than 50 but more importantly, he made his 71 off only 52 balls and ensured that the side had scored 71 in the five batting Powerplay overs. He went on to win the man of the match award as well.

 

What did not help the Kenyans was the number of extras that they bowled – almost finishing up as the fifth half-centurion in the game. Pakistan will now play Sri Lanka while Kenya get a six-day break before they take on Sri Lanka as well.

 

Brief scores:

 

Pakistan 317 for seven in 50 overs (Umar Akmal 71, Misbah-ul-Haq 65; Thomas Odoya 3 for 41, Steve Tikolo 1 for 44) bt Kenya 112 all out in 33.1 overs (Collins Obuya 47, Seren Waters 17, Shahid Afridi 5 for 16, Umar Gul 2 for 12)

 

 (Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com . His Twitter handle is @suneerchowdhary)

 

Pictures © Getty Images

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