Winning the toss and blindly electing to bat first may turn out to be a dangerous decision, even if your opposition is a minnow. Today, Pakistan escaped Canadian scare after their captain elected to bat first on a perfect bowling afternoon but ended up winning the game relatively easily..
Shahid Afridi became the first bowler in history of world cup cricket to take 4 wicket haul in 3 consecutive matches and his effort was the reason Canada batsmen were never in hunt for their smallish target under lights. Surkari, Ashish Bagai and Hansra played well between them but Afridi claimed each one of them one after another. There were some heated moments between Pakistani fielders and second last man Balaji Rao but umpires cooled things down.
Earlier, Pakistan continued to lose wickets at regular intarval before Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal stabilised the innings and took their team past 100 run mark. Pakistan were bowled out 7 overs before their quota of overs.
The scorecard :-
| Pakistan innings (elected to bat) |
| Batsman |
Runs |
Balls |
4s |
6s |
| Mohammad Hafeez |
lbw |
b Osinde |
11 |
12 |
2 |
0 |
| Ahmed Shehzad |
c Gordon |
b Baidwan |
12 |
23 |
2 |
0 |
| Kamran Akmal |
c Kumar |
b Cheema |
16 |
38 |
2 |
0 |
| Younis Khan |
lbw |
b Baidwan |
6 |
13 |
1 |
0 |
| Misbha-ul-Haq |
c Bagai |
b Balaji |
37 |
68 |
1 |
0 |
| Umar Akmal |
lbw |
b Balaji |
48 |
68 |
4 |
1 |
| Shahid Afridi |
c Kumar |
b Cheema |
20 |
17 |
2 |
0 |
| Abdul Razzaq |
lbw |
b Hansra |
8 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
| Umar Gul |
not out |
|
2 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
| Wahab Riaz |
c Balaji |
b Hansra |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| Saeed Ajmal |
|
b Baidwan |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
| Extras (24) |
byes=4, lbyes=3, wides=16, noballs=1 |
|
|
|
|
| Total = 184 all out in 43 overs. |
| Bowlers :- |
Overs |
Mdns |
Runs |
Wickets |
Extras |
| Khurram Chohan |
3.3 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
1 no ball |
| Henry Osinde |
7 |
0 |
25 |
1 |
5 wides |
| Tyron Gordon |
0.3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 wide |
| Harvir Baidwan |
8 |
1 |
35 |
3 |
2 wides |
| Rizwan Cheema |
8 |
0 |
33 |
2 |
3 wides |
| Balaji Rao |
10 |
0 |
50 |
2 |
1 wide |
| Jimmy Hansra |
6 |
1 |
23 |
2 |
|
| Canada innings (target = 185 from 50 overs) |
| Batsman |
Runs |
Balls |
4s |
6s |
| R Gunasekara |
lbw |
b Gul |
8 |
16 |
0 |
0 |
| Nitish Kumar |
|
b Razzaq |
2 |
13 |
0 |
0 |
| Z Surkari |
lbw |
b Ajmal |
27 |
67 |
2 |
0 |
| Ashish Bagai |
|
b Afridi |
16 |
35 |
2 |
0 |
| AS Hansra |
|
b Afridi |
43 |
75 |
4 |
1 |
| Rizwan Cheema |
|
b Afridi |
4 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
| Tyron Gordon |
c Riaz |
b Afridi |
9 |
12 |
1 |
0 |
| Harvir Baidwan |
|
b Afridi |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Khurram Chohan |
not out |
|
5 |
20 |
0 |
0 |
| Balaji Rao |
run out |
(Afridi) |
5 |
20 |
0 |
0 |
| Henry Osinde |
|
b Riaz |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| Extras (23) |
byes=0, lbyes=4, wides=19, noballs=0 |
|
|
|
|
| Total = 138 all out in 42.5 overs.. lot by 46 runs. |
| Bowlers :- |
Overs |
Mdns |
Runs |
Wickets |
Extras |
| Abdul Razzaq |
7 |
2 |
16 |
1 |
1 wide |
| Umar Gul |
7 |
1 |
20 |
1 |
4 wides |
| Shahid Afridi |
10 |
0 |
23 |
5 |
3 wides |
| Wahab Riaz |
5.5 |
0 |
23 |
1 |
2 wides |
| Saeed Ajmal |
8 |
0 |
31 |
1 |
3 wides |
| Mohammad Hafeez |
5 |
0 |
21 |
0 |
|
