Pakistan double wicket tournament- report (25 Apr 1997)

Double wicket contest - Pakistan & New Zealand in semis:

By Ilyas Beg

LAHORE, April 24: Pakistan will play against Sri Lanka on Friday at 7.45 pm in the first semi-final while New Zealand will face South Africa at 8.45 pm in the second semi-final of the first International Floodlit Double Wicket Cricket Tourna-ment at the Qadhafi Stadium.

Pakistan defeated South Africa by a remarkable margin of 35 runs to top Group "A" of the competition on Thursday due to a devastating knock of 72 runs by Shahid Afridi. He was as domineering as ever and hit five huge sixes and nine boundaries. He was heartily applauded for collecting those runs on only 28 deliveries. Shahid was out twice on the fifth ball of the first over and second ball of the second over.

Aaqib Javed was also in good form as he hit 20 runs on 11 deliveries. He smashed two big sixes and one four. The South Africans conceded eight extras and Pakistan hit the highest grand total of this competition (100). Both Bacher and Koen got dismissed Shahid once, each. After deduction of twenty runs, Pakistan had the net total of 80.

Needing 81 runs to win, the South African never looked like reaching the target due to excellent bowling by Aaqib Javed. He conceded 31 runs and dismissed Koen twice. Shahid Afridi dismised him once. Koen hit only two boundaries in his score of 19. He played 16 balls. Bacher was more enterprising of the two and he hit one six and eight boundaries in his knock of 48. He played 22 balls. Pakistanis conceded eight extras and the South African side could have a grand total of 75. After deduction of 30 runs, South Africans net total was 45 and it lost the match by 35 runs to be relegated to number two position in Pool "A". Shahid Afridi was again declared "Man-of-the-Match" for his exhilarating batting. batting.

Sri Lanka team managed to beat New Zealand side by a narrow margin of three runs due to rash strokes of their opponents. Fleming hit two sixes and four boundaries in his knock of 38 but was dismissed thwice. He played 18 balls. Doull scored 37 runs with the help of three huge sixes and two boundaries which entertained a thin crowd. He also played 18 balls. However, Doull was out thrice. Wickremasinghe took two and Chandana three wickets. New Zealand had a grand total of 79 but 50 runs were deducted from it to leave the net total at 29.

The Sri Lankan team, needing just 30 runs for a win which could earn it a place in the semi-finals at the cost of neighbouring Australian side, scored grand total of 42. Due to deduction of 10 runs, the net total of Sri Lanka was 32 and the team coasted home by three runs. Chandana scored 27 runs on 16 balls and hit five boundaries. He was out once. Wickremasinghe scored ten runs on 21 balls with the help of one four. The New Zealanders also conceded five extras. For his good all-round performance, Chandana emerged as the "Man-of-the-Match".

Thanks to a swashbuckling knock of 60 by Damien Martyn on 26 balls, Australia beat India by six runs in Group "B" match. The batsman hit three big sixes and seven boundaries without getting out and put the Australian side in a domineering position.

Australia managed to hit a grand total of 68. Jo Angel contributed eight runs on 10 balls and was also out once. Thus Australia had a net total of 58. A target of 59 for a win proved challenging for the Indian pair. Atul Wassan tried to achieve the target through lusty hitting. He hit a blistering knock of 64 but was out thrice. Wassan hit the ball six times to the ropes and five times over the ropes to entertain a thin crowd of about one thousand. Sanjay Manager was not out even once but he scored only 11 runs on 13 deliveries. Seven extras were also conceded to the Indians. However dismissal of Wassan three times proved fatal for the Indian side. For that 30 runs were deducted out of a grand total of 82 and the net total of 52 meant a defeat of the Indian pair by six runs. Jo Angel dismissed Wassan twice and Martyn once. Martyn was adjudged "Man-of-the-Match" for his splendid all-round effort.

The Group "A" match between Zimbabwe and United Arab Emirates (UAE) had no bearing on the championship, because both the teams had lost all hopes of qualifying for the pre-finals by having suffered two defeats, each. However, it gave a consolation win to Zimbabwe by a good margin of 31 runs. The UAE pair looked mentally defeated and did not make any effort to muster good score against some fine bowling by the Zimbabwe pair.

UAE's Riaz Poonawala scored 16 runs on 17 balls with the help of three boundaries but was dismissed twice on the second and fifth ball of the first over. Sultan Zarwani hit one four in his score of 14 and was also dismissed twice. For four dismissals, 40 runs had to be deducted out of a grand total of 33. Thus the UAE team was -7 (minus seven) before the beginning of the Zimbabwean batting. Both Brandes and Whittall helped in dismissed of the UAE batsmen twice.

Zimbabwe's Guy Whittall batted very sensibly and hit five boundaries in his total of 26. He faced 17 balls. Edo Brandes scored 28 runs on 19 balls but was dismissed three times. He hit two huge sixes and as many boundaries. Zimbabwe scored grand total of 54 and after deduction of 30 runs, had a net total of 24. The -7 (minus seven) score of UAE gave the Zimbabwe pair a win by 31 runs. For his excellent all-round performance, Guy Whittall was declared the "Man-of-the-Match".

Source:: Dawn (https://xiber.com/dawn/)