By Jawad Hussain
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (TheSportsNEXT) September 25, 2012: It was one of those luckiest days when Pakistani batsmen raised their game to clinch victory for the nation and what a day they chose to steal the limelight as Pakistan needed their heroics badly enough to book a place in the Super Eights stage of the ICC World Twenty20 2012.
It was Imran Nazir’s day in Sri Lanka who, for the first time in the tournament, unleashed his big hitting abilities to the optimum as he smashed all Bangladeshi bowlers all across the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and achieved a highly important victory for Pakistan.
Imran Nazir hit 72 aggressive runs from just 36 balls at a strike rate of exactly 200 runs per 100 balls as he cruised to the ICC World Twenty20 2012’s fastest fifty from only 26 balls and eclipsed Chris Gayle’s record of hitting fast half century from 25 balls earlier in the tournament.
It was a day meant to break many records for Pakistan as Imran Nazir’s strike of 200 runs per 100 balls was the second-highest for a Pakistani batsman for a half century. Umar Akmal tops the list with strike rate of 206.45 runs per 100 balls when he smacked Australia in 2010 during his 64 runs innings.
Pakistani batsmen also made a new record of chasing down their highest target ever in Twenty20 International cricket beating their previous best of 165 against Australia in 2007.
Imran Nazir and skipper Mohammad Hafeez amassed 124 runs for the opening wicket partnership which is their second best opening wicket partnership in Twenty20 Internationals. Interestingly, the top two opening stands have come against Bangladesh and the top opening stand of 142 runs was scored during the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.
Another interesting statistics about the match was that the match’s cumulative run-rate of 9.12 was the seventh highest for those World Twenty20 matches which had over 30 overs bowled. It is also the second highest match run-rate in a World Twenty20 match involving Pakistan after that 2010 ICC World Twenty20’s semi-final between Pakistan and Australia.
Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim won the toss and decided to use his batting might to leave Pakistan with a massive chase in a bid to expose a vulnerable Pakistan batting line-up which is not renowned for chasing down totals.
Bangladesh looked desperate right from the word go and openers Tamim Iqbal (24 from 12 – 5 fours at strike rate of 200) and Mohammad Ashraful (14 from 13 – 3 fours at strike rate of 107.69) got their team off to a flying start scoring 34 runs for the opening wicket from just 3.2 overs.
Bangladesh’s tactic of promoting Shakib Al Hasan up the order at one-down position once again paid huge dividends as he used his bashing skills to the optimum to score 84 runs from only 54 balls with the help of 11 fours and two sixes. He scored his runs at a strike rate of 155.55 runs per 100 balls which is the fourth-highest for a fifty-plus score by a Bangladesh batsman in Twenty20 internationals.
A stupid mix-up between Shakib and Tamim put an end to a promising innings of the left-hand opening batsman as Pakistani skipper Mohammad Hafeez ran like Usain Bolt to clip the bails before he could make his ground.
Bangladesh were two down for 61 runs in the sixth over and were looking good to score a huge total after a decent launch-pad provided by the opening batsmen.
Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim joined former captain Shakib and both batsmen added 68 more runs into the total from 53 balls before medium pacer Yasir Arafat got rid of the right-hander for 25 from 26. The Bangladesh captain mostly played a second-fiddle role in the partnership and hit only one boundary and as many six during his innings.
Shahid Afridi soon got rid of Mahmudullah for a duck but Nasir Hossain (16 from 13 – 2 fours) and Shakib Al Hasan took their team’s total into a formidable position with some late hitting as Bangladesh scored impressive 175 for six from their 20 overs, their best total against Pakistan.
Bangladesh hit a total of 22 boundaries and three sixes during the course of their innings and scored 61/2 from their powerplay overs besides scoring 39/2 in the last five overs.
Apart from Shahid Khan Afridi and Yasir Arafat, Pakistani bowlers looked all rusty and scrappy as skipper Mohammad Hafeez went for 28 from his three, Sohail Tanvir went for 25 from his three for a wicket, while Saeed Ajmal went for 32 from his four overs. The worst bowling figures for Pakistan were achieved by fast bowler Umar Gul whose short-pitch bowling on a batting friendly pitch earned him figures of 0/43 from three overs, his worst bowling figures in Twenty20 Internationals.
Pakistan had come into the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 with the pride of having the world’s most lethal bowling attack but their fast bowlers have lost sheen a little bit and have leaked a lot of easy runs which should be a point of concern for the team management.
Shahid Afridi bowled his best spell of bowling in recent months as he went for only 20 runs from his four overs for a wicket, while Yasir Arafat captured three wickets for 25 from his three overs. Mohammad Hafeez failed to utilize his bowling resources rather judiciously as despite of leaking 29 runs from his earlier two overs, he preferred Umar Gul over Yasir Arafat in the death overs which showed his lack of awareness of his available resources and how they had performed earlier in the game.
However, Mohammad Hafeez made up for his captaincy blunders with the bat as he along with Imran Nazir (72 from 36 – 9 fours, 3 sixes) scored 124 runs for the opening wicket from just 81 balls thus taking the game away from Bangladesh.
Just like Bangladeshi captain Mohammad Hafeez (45 from 47 – 6 fours) played a second-fiddle role in the partnership as Imran Nazir unleashed his big shots brutally and mustered the Bangladeshi bowlers with no mercy.
When Imran Nazir was removed by Abul Hasan, he had taken Pakistan on road to victory already but skipper Mohammad Hafeez followed him in the same over to deal Pakistan a double blow.
Nasir Jamshed (29 not out from 14 – 2 fours, 2 sixes) and Kamran Akmal (22 not out from 15 – 4 fours) showed no signs of panic and took Pakistan to 178 for two from 18.4 overs as the Men in Green achieved the target with eight balls to spare.
Expectedly, Shakib Al Hasan, the only quality player in Bangladeshi side, was the star performer with the ball as well as he gave away only 23 runs from his four overs while Abdur Razzak also bowled rather miserly for figures of none for 30 from his four. All the other bowlers were belted hard by Pakistani batsmen as Mashrafe Mortaza (3-0-30-0), Shafiul Islam (2.4-0-35-0), Abul Hasan (3-0-33-2) and Mahmudullah (2-0-24-0) looked unimpressive.
Imran Nazir was declared Man of the Match for his brilliant knock of 72 from 36 balls as Pakistan have joined South Africa, Australia and arch-rivals India in Group 2.
Pakistan will play their next match against South Africa on September 28, before taking on arch-foes India on September 30, and then will face off against Australia on October 2, 2012.
