Asad Shafiq

Pakistan ended Australia’s unbeaten run in the World Cup by beating the world cup favorites by 4 wickets. Apart from the one over Brett Lee bowled to pick up two consecutive wickets and the walking-wicket of Shahid Afridi, the game largely belonged to Pakistan especially for the way they bowled.

Reveling the new ball were Pakistan’s new ball pair Umar Gul (7.4-1-30-1) and Abdul Rehman (10-0-34-1) who’s tantalizing spell contributed to the building up of pressure for they were so mean that the Aussies had to earn their runs initially. They saw a fiery Umar Gul consistently clocking the 140’s and more importantly bowling testing line and length. The spinners played a major share too. The 29 overs from the spinners giving away just 94 runs and picking up 3 wikcets between them mean a lot more than what the score line implies.

The Aussies managed just 176 in a pitch where 240 would have been good enough to fancy their chances, thanks to the Razzaq’s cameo (4-0-8-2) with later in the innings.

Pakistan looked very comfortable initially though Kamran Akmal (23) took his own chances of finding no-man’s land in few of his miscued shots. But the cornerstone of Pakistan’s batting was the technique and temperament of Asad Shafiq (46) in what was a pressure chase.  And Umar Akmal (44) came in just after the fall of two wickets of consecutive balls of Brett Lee, wondering what the concern was!

There were a few inexplicable errors in Ponting’s decisions on the field. The fall of Afridi’s wicket meant that the pressure was transferred to Pakistan which means your lead fast bowler must be back into the attack before it is too late. It was not to be!  It was Krezja bowling his full quota while Lee (8-1-28-4) was denied that right in spite of his riveting spells early in the game.

Tags: Asad Shafiq, Australia, Brett Lee, Cricket, Pakistan, Umar Akmal, World Cup