Pakistan humble UAE amidst a deluge of sixes
Santhosh S - 10 November 2001
Pakistan announced their superiority by trouncing UAE in the Cathay
Pacific/Standard Chartered Hong Kong Cricket Sixes 2001 being played
at Kowloon Cricket Club in Hong Kong, on Saturday.
United Arab Emirates won the toss and elected to field first; a
decision that turned out to be a disaster. Kaif Gaury bowled the first
over and Shahid Afridi struck two consecutive fours off the first two
balls. Wasim Akram struck a four off the fourth ball and Afridi
blasted one more boundary off the last ball of the over (1-0-18-0).
Akram smashed four consecutive sixes off the bowling of Miraj Khaliq;
the fourth disappeared high over square, even after losing his balance
while playing the shot. Akram struck a boundary to the fine leg fence
and had to walk back to the pavilion retired not out 33* (7 balls, 4
sixes, 2 fours). Abdur Razzaq too joined the fun, smacking a four off
the last ball. Pakistan amassed 34 runs off that one over.
Afridi lofted a huge six and then a four off the first two balls of
the Khuram Khan over and perished caught behind after making 23 off
seven balls (4 fours, 1 six). Razzaq hit a huge six over long off to
make it 18 off the Khan over. There was no stopping Razzaq as he
plundered 24 runs off the Azim Saeed over, which included three
boundaries and two sixes. Razzaq too had to retire not out 35* (10
balls, 3 sixes, 4 fours).
Ahmed Nadeem bowled a decent over to Azhar Mahmood to restore some
kind of sanity to the proceedings. Mahmood (8) fell to the penultimate
delivery, caught at long off by Gaury. Naved-ul-Hasan struck a six off
the last ball and Pakistan finished with 108/2, the biggest total of
the day.
UAE got off to a good start, Saeed-al-Saffar striking consecutive
fours off Afridi's first over (1-0-10-0). Kaif Gaury was determined to
put up a fight, smashing Naved-ul-Hasan for five boundaries in the
second over (1-0-28-0). After the second over UAE were 39 for no loss.
Akram came in changed the whole complexion of the game, this time with
the ball; he cleaned up Saeed-al-Saffar with a superb Yorker. Akram
has been just too good today and bowled yet another brilliant over
(1-0-8-1).
Ahmed Nadeem struck a four off Mahmood and off the second ball was
caught at the fence. Nadeem was distinctly unlucky to have been given
out, as the high full toss should have been called a no ball. Gaury
smashed two more boundaries and Khuram Khan hit a four to make it 17
runs off the over.
Abdur Razzaq came in to bowl the final over with UAE needing 45 runs
to win, which was an impossible task. Gaury smacked a six over long
off and had to walk back retired not out 31* (14 balls, 4 fours, 1
six). UAE fell 29 runs short of the target, scoring 79/2.
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