Second T20: Hafeez heroics not enough as Pakistan fall short

Thrilling end to Twenty20 series after Yuvraj’s 36-ball 72 rocked the tourists.

KARACHI:

Mohammad Hafeez played the best innings of his Twenty20 career but Yuvraj Singh’s cameo earlier in the day – a scintillating 72 off just 36 balls, including three sixes in as many balls off Saeed Ajmal – gave the tourists needing too much under lights, falling short by just 11 runs as the series ended 1-1.

Hafeez’s decision to chase under lights raised eyebrows despite Pakistan’s convincing win in the opening Twenty20 and Yuvraj’s onslaught, when he hit seven sixes and four fours, looked to have settled the match there and then as India piled up 192 for seven off their quota. Mohammad Irfan had another brilliant outing with the ball, giving away just 20 runs off his quota but Sohail Tanvir, Ajmal and Shahid Afridi had an outing to forget, the trio being smashed for 119 off 11 overs as Yuvraj and MS Dhoni entertained the capacity crowd.

Yuvraj, who was hit full on the right toe by an Irfan Yorker, returned to pick up the wicket of Ahmed Shahzad and was named man of the match.

“In the nets, I couldn’t middle a single ball so my aim was to spend some time in the middle,” said Yuvraj after the win. “That yorker [which hit him on the boot] reminded me of Wasim Akram but that’s cricket, you got to take a few blows. We thought 160 to 170 was a good total. If Dhoni and I had stayed in the centre for longer, we could’ve scored more than what we did.”



Chasing under lights has never been Pakistan’s strong point. However, in arguably one of their better shows, the tourists started well, putting up 74 for the opening stand in just under 10 overs. However, with the asking rate touching 12 an over and Pakistan in a state of bother at 84 for two in the 11th over, Hafeez took it upon himself to script an unlikely win. He paddled the fat-bowlers, even carving them over extra-cover. The captain also swept the spinners with ease, using his feet and clearing the boundary with ease as the crowd sat back stunned.

However, after reaching his half-century off just 23 balls, Hafeez was unable to press home the advantage, perishing on the boundary after Afridi disappointed once again with the bat. Hafeez did, however, pick up the man-of-the-series award for his second half-century in as many games.

“When we were bowling, we didn’t follow the basics - we bowled short of a length,” said Hafeez. “The partnership between Dhoni and Yuvraj was the difference. In the first six overs, we played very well but in the next four, we didn’t score as much as we should have.”

The teams now head over to Chennai for the first One-Day International that takes place tomorrow.

MS Dhoni



“A lot depends on the youngsters bowling the last overs. They held their nerve nicely. They were feeling the pressure but they responded really well and executed the yorkers. When they wanted to bowl slower ones, they did that too.”

You can view a slideshow of pictures from the match here.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2012.