NEW YORK: Canada’s inexperienced batters crumbled against pace for yet another low score at the Twenty20 World Cup as Pakistan finally registered their first win Tuesday.
The four-pronged Pakistan pace attack, led by Mohammad Amir’s impeccable figures of 2-13, clipped Canada for 106-7 with only opening batter Aaron Johnson showing aggression in his 44-ball knock of 52.
Mohammad Rizwan’s unbeaten half-century (53 not out) anchored Pakistan, which lost to rival India on Sunday, to 107-3 in 17.3 overs for a commanding seven-wicket win.
“Good for us, we needed this win,” Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said. “We started well with the bowling, in the first six overs (and) we know we had to be up to the mark.”
Johnson sent early tremors in Pakistan’s camp with his back-to-back boundaries off Shaheen Shah Afridi’s first two balls of the match after Babar won the toss and elected to field.
But Amir, who came out of retirement for the World Cup, hit the right areas straight away and buckled the batters as wickets continued to fall around Johnson.
Johnson, who was dropped on 44 by Fakhar Zaman at mid-wicket, hit four boundaries and brought up his half-century with his fourth six before he too was finally undone by Naseem Shah in the 14th over.
Fast bowler Haris Rauf became the third quickest bowler to complete 100 wickets in T20 internationals when he had Shreyas Movva (2) caught behind and then found the outside edge of Ravinderpal Singh’s bat in the same over to finish with 2-26.
“Definitely, it was a bit disappointing,” Pakistan-born Canada skipper Saad Bin Zafar said. “We wanted to play a positive brand of cricket and I think the wicket was not very helpful. It was difficult to bat early on and not a good toss to lose. We were about 25 to 30 runs short.”
Pakistan’s experiment with Saim Ayub as an opener in the World Cup for the first time didn’t work out as the left-hander struggled to score 6 off 12 balls before he edged Dillon Heyliger (2-18) to wicketkeeper inside the batting power play.
Rizwan and Babar (33) then had a 63-run stand before the Pakistan skipper banged his bat on the wicket in anger when he tried to guide Heyliger to third man but couldn’t beat the wicketkeeper as Rizwan’s run-a-ball half-century saw Pakistan over the line.
Pakistan, the 2022 runner-up, needs to beat Ireland in their last game and also hope co-host US lose both their remaining games against India and Ireland to have a chance of advancing on superior net run-rate.
The United States made a history by beating Pakistan in the Super Over in Dallas after they had defeated Canada in a high-scoring opening game of the tournament they are jointly co-hosting with the West Indies.
Pakistan finally get first win at T20 World Cup, beat Canada by 7 wickets
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Pakistan finally get first win at T20 World Cup, beat Canada by 7 wickets
- “Good for us, we needed this win,” Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said
- Amir, who came out of retirement for the World Cup, hit the right areas straight away and buckled the batters as wickets continued to fall around Johnson
Nissanka’s second straight half-century powers Gulf Giants past Dubai Capitals in ILT20
- Nissanka blasted 67 off 31 balls, hitting six fours and five sixes, as he combined with captain James Vince for a match-winning partnership of 97 runs
DUBAI: Pathum Nissanka struck a second successive half-century as Gulf Giants claimed a four-wicket victory over Dubai Capitals in the DP World ILT20 on Saturday, moving to the top of the points table with their second consecutive win.
Nissanka blasted 67 off 31 balls, hitting six fours and five sixes, as he combined with captain James Vince for a match-winning partnership of 97 runs in 60 deliveries while chasing a target of 161. Vince played the anchoring role, finishing unbeaten on 50 from 45 balls as the Giants completed the chase in 18.5 overs.
Earlier, Azmatullah Omarzai led the bowling effort with figures of 3 for 46 to restrict the Capitals to 160 for 7. While several Capitals batters made starts, captain Dasun Shanaka provided late impetus with 23 not out from nine balls, including two successive sixes in a 19-run final over.
The Giants’ run chase gathered momentum despite the early loss of Rahmanullah Gurbaz for nine. Nissanka launched the assault in the powerplay, targeting James Neesham in the fourth over with three sixes and a boundary as the Giants raced to 60 for 1 after six overs. He brought up a 23-ball half-century before falling in the 12th over to Mustafizur Rahman, who claimed his second wicket of the match.
A brief wobble followed as Moeen Ali was dismissed soon after, leaving the Giants at 112 for 3, but Omarzai (14 off 12) and Tom Moores (13 off 8) made valuable contributions to support Vince, who saw the chase through to the end.
In the Capitals innings, Omarzai struck early to dismiss Shayan Jahangir before Sediqullah Atal and David Willey added 61 runs for the second wicket. Atal top-scored with 35 from 25 balls before falling to Ali, while the Capitals slowed considerably through the middle overs, managing just 18 runs between the 10th and 14th overs.
Jordan Cox and James Neesham revived the innings with a brisk 41-run partnership, but Omarzai returned in the death overs to remove Cox and Rovman Powell, finishing as the leading wicket-taker and moving into the lead for the White Belt.
“The fact that we got the points, and we feel we can play better is a good thing. We squeezed them with the ball in the middle overs,” Gulf Giants captain Ali said.
“Nissanka is a brilliant player and one of the top players in every format. Vince is also a quality player. He just did the job and played the situation well,” he added.
Reflecting on the defeat, Dubai Capitals captain Shanaka said Nissanka was in the form of his life.
“He’s amazing because he is so small, and yet he hits the ball so far. He’s going to give trouble to a lot of teams in this tournament. We could have shown a little more intent with the bat in that middle period,” he said.
“We didn’t try to find the gaps; rather than waiting to hit the long ball, we needed to rotate the strike. Rovman Powell and I probably could have gone a bit earlier, and we might get this right in the next game.”
