-
Pakistan's Shahid Afridi (R) celebrates with Kamran Akmal after taking the wicket of Netherlands's Daan van Bunge during the ICC World Twenty20 - Source: Reuters -
Related
Pakistan leg-spinner Shahid Afridi destroyed the Netherlands'
Twenty20 World Cup dreams at Lord's with four for 11 from his four
overs in the final group B match.
The Netherlands, who needed to score at least 151 to advance to the
Super Eight stage at the expense of their opponents, tumbled to 93
all out from 17.3 overs, losing by 82 runs.
They had needed to get to within 25 of Pakistan's 175 for five to
advance to the second round with England by virtue of their
superior run rate after upsetting the tournament hosts last
Friday.
The first six Pakistan batsmen all reached double figures with
wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, promoted to opener in a bid to
accelerate the scoring rate, top-scoring with 41 from 30 balls with
three sixes.
In reply, the Netherlands reached 42 for one before the Pakistan
spinners, headed by Afridi, took control.
Afridi, whose faster delivery confounded all the Dutch batsmen,
bowled Bas Zuiderent with his first ball.
He went on to record the fourth-best figures in all Twenty20
cricket while off-spinner Saeed Ajmal took three for 20 and Akmal
finished with four stumpings.
The only blot on Pakistan's day was their fallible fielding.
After the team had dropped four catches in their 48-run loss to
England on Sunday, Shoaib Malik allowed a chance to slip through
his fingertips in the gully and Salman Butt dropped a simple chance
at short fine-leg.
Pakistan v Netherlands T20 scoreboard
