T20 Final Report

Again I was 50 percent wrong. I expected a South Africa- Srilanka final, but Pakistan knocked out South Africa in a clinical performance, and further, went on to win the championship without much trouble. It was a fight between two of the best bowling sides in the tournament, and Pakistan, just like one of their star players Abdul Razzaq made a fairy tale comeback and won the championship that evaded them by 5 runs in 2007.

Semi-final #1: South Africa vs Pakistan

The tournament favorites were rocked early despite capturing wickets. Kamran Akmal's 12 ball 23 set the tone and South Africa's impeccable seam attack was under pressure for once. Afridi, promoted to No. 3 in the batting order played a mature hand to everyone's surprise, by scoring 51 off 34 balls with 8 fours. South Africa came back strongly with some fantastic death over bowling to restrict pakistan to 149. During their chase they got off to a reasonable start through Kallis and Smith. Young seamer Aamer removed Smith while Afridi sent Gibbs and Devilliers back quickly. Some brilliant containment by Gul, Afridi and Ajmal left South Africa needing 23 off the last over. Despite Kallis scoring 64 and Duminy scoring an unbeaten 44 pakistan qualified for the finals for the second time in a row.

Semi-final #2: Srilanka vs West Indies

An astonishing solo from Tillakaratne Dilshan and a clinical bowling performance booked Srilanka's final ticket. Put into bat, most Srilankan batsmen struggled to get going, but Dilshan didn't. With a fine unbeaten 96 off 57 balls he carried Srilanka to 158. He didn't get enough strike towards the end of the innings to complete his 100. Jayasuria's painstaking 24 off 37 balls was the next best score for Srilanka. But the runchase was off to a nightmare of a start. Windies lost Xavier Marshall, Lendl Simmons and the in-form Dwayne Bravo for ducks in Angelo Matthews' first over itself. They never got back and were blown away for 101 runs, out of which skipper Chris Gayle made an unbeaten 63. No other batsmen reached double figures as the Lankan bowlers were at their miserly best.

Final: Pakistan vs Srilanka

Labelled as firm favorites the Islanders won the toss and choose to bat. Aware of Pakistan's middle over and end over bowling strength they went hard at the new ball, a move backfired horribly. Srilanka were reduced to 34/4 after the 6 powerplay overs, with come-back man Abdul Razzaq picking up three wickets and young Aamer bouncing Dilshan out for a duck in the very first over. Srilanka found themselves in an even more deeper hole at 70/6 but their inspirational captain Kumar Sangakkara combined forces with young all rounder Matthews to carry his team to 138/6 in 20 overs, with the pair plundering 59 runs in the last 5 overs. Pakistan's chase was so un-Pakistan. They were, for a change, very professional. Kamaran Akmal was again in good form and smacked 37 off 28 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixers. Despite loosing the second wicket at 63, Afridi, promoted again to No.3 and Shoaib Malik played mature hands in seeing Pakistan through with 8 balls to spare. Afridi's 40 ball 54 included 2 sixers and 2 fours and was the most mature innings of him ever. He was named man of the match, and Dilshan just pipped Afridi for the Man of the Series Award.

After the incidents at Lahore, where the touring Srilankan team was attacked by gunmen, Pakistan has been starved of cricket with teams refusing to tour. With the 2011 World Cup 50 over competition moved away from Pakistan, this is a very very very important victory for Pakistan as a Nation. Cheers Pakistan, Well Played.

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