AB de Villiers
The Group B match between South Africa and Netherlands was played in Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali. Netherlands won the toss and elected to field first. South Africa’s innings was opened by Hashim Amla and Smith.
After a partnership of 53 Smith lost his wicket. Kallis who followed the skipper could not last long and was dismissed after scoring just 2 runs. AB de Villiers who was the next to follow had a good partnership with Amla. The two batsmen put on a partnership of 221 runs. By then South Africa had already put on 279 runs on the board. Duminy got his little act together with a score of 40 and took the South African score to 351/5 at the end of 50 overs. Ryan Ten Doeschates was the most successful bowler for the Dutch who bowled 10 overs to give 72 runs and take 3 wickets.
Wesley Baressi was the most successful batsman for the Dutch with a score of 44 runs. Imran Tahir bowled quite well picking up 3 wickets in 6.5 overs giving away just 19 runs. Netherlands were bowled out for a much expected low score of 120 runs in 34.5 overs.
In the second match played in the latter half of the day at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first. Hafeez lost his wicket very quickly and rather easily at a score of 11 runs. Shahzad and Kamran Akmal continued, trying to build a partnership, however Shahzad lost his wicket easily at a score of 12 runs. Younus Khan too was not able to sustain himself on the wicket and was dismissed at a score of 6 runs.
Suddenly Pakistan seemed to be in trouble. However Misbah Ul Haq (37) and Umar Akmal (48) steadied the ship somehow and took the innings to 140 in 35 overs. Afridi with his little cameo of 20 runs brought some hope for Pakistan but could not manage to prevent the ship from sinking. So in 43 overs Pakistan were all out at a score of 184 runs. Baidwan was the most successful bowler for Canada with three wickets in his bag; however Cheema Rao and Hansra also took 2 wickets each.
Canada opened the innings with Nitish Kumar and Ruvindu Gunasekera. But then again Gunasekera got out at a score of 8 runs. Nitish Kumar too lost his wicket in the next over to Gul.
Bagai and Surkari tried to control the innings but they were only able to do so till the 17th over till Afridi took the wicket of Bagai. Hansra (41) and Surkari (27) however managed to take the innings to 104 runs in 33 overs and it seemed that Pakistan were on the brink of their first loss. With five quick wickets by Shahid Afridi Canada were finding themselves on 130 for 8 and their chances of winning closing in.
Probably Afridi could not have had his night better made as he added the cherry in the form of a run-out to add to his cake made up of wickets.
It was only time which gave way for the twentieth wicket of the match and Afridi was the winner of the Man of the Match, which helped Pakistan to win their third straight match.
Tags: Canada, Cricket, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Mohali, Netherlands, Pakistan, Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, South Africa, World Cup
