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
Desert Vipers cruise past Sharjah Warriorz to secure top-two finish
- A clinical bowling performance, led by player-of-the-match David Payne, set up a straightforward chase
DUBAI: Desert Vipers continued their impressive run in the International League T20 with a comprehensive four-wicket victory over Sharjah Warriorz at Dubai International Stadium on Saturday, a result that guaranteed them a top-two finish in the points table.
A clinical bowling performance, led by player-of-the-match David Payne, set up a straightforward chase as the Vipers registered their seventh win from eight matches to move clear at the summit with 14 points.
Payne spearheaded the attack with an incisive spell that dismantled the Warriorz batting line-up, finishing with figures of 3 for 14. He struck twice inside the powerplay to remove Johnson Charles and Tom Kohler-Cadmore, conceding just nine runs from his three opening overs as Sharjah crawled to 28/2 after six overs.
Pressure was maintained from both ends as Khuzaima Tanveer and Naseem Shah kept runs to a minimum, before Payne struck again just after the powerplay to dismiss James Rew for a duck. Tight overs from Dan Lawrence and Naseem further strangled the scoring, with the Warriorz unable to find momentum through the middle overs.
Regular wickets continued to fall as Noor Ahmad and Sam Curran applied sustained pressure. Noor removed Ethan D’Souza with a sharp stumping and later trapped Harmeet Singh lbw, while Curran dismissed Sikandar Raza cheaply. Tom Abell offered lone resistance with an unbeaten 35, but found little support as the Warriorz slid from 76/7 to 90 all out.
In reply, the Vipers lost early wickets but never allowed the chase to drift. Taskin Ahmed struck twice to remove Fakhar Zaman and Hasan Nawaz, and Max Holden fell soon after, leaving the Vipers 38/3 at the end of the powerplay.
Sam Curran anchored the innings with a composed 37 from 31 deliveries, rotating the strike efficiently alongside Dan Lawrence to keep the required rate under control. Despite disciplined spells from Taskin, Adil Rashid and Dwaine Pretorius, the Warriorz were unable to build sustained pressure.
Late wickets briefly delayed the inevitable, but Tom Bruce’s late six and four in the 13th over effectively sealed the contest before Vriitya Aravind clipped the winning run to complete the chase with 37 balls to spare.
After the match, Payne said his success came from adapting his plans to the conditions and opposition.
“My plans were slightly different to usual tonight,” he said. “It was about bowling across the bat and matching up against their strengths. Having such a strong bowling attack around me takes a lot of pressure off.”
Warriorz captain Sikandar Raza admitted his side struggled to adapt.
“We’ve won our games when batting first, but while chasing we haven’t quite found the right combinations,” he said. “For us now, every game is like a final.”
