Pakistan Cricketers Down Australia

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Pakistan team pose with their trophy after winning the Twenty20 international cricket series against Australia in Dubai September 10, 2012. REUTERS/Nikhil Monteiro

Australia registered a resounding 94 run win over Pakistan to salvage the final Twenty20 match of a three match series at Dubai Stadium. As a part of that match defeat, Pakistan were bowled out for 74, which is the joint lowest by a Test playing country in all Twenty20s, and this was also their biggest defeat in the history of the Twenty20 format. Nonetheless, Pakistan claimed the series victory 2-1.
Batting first Australia put up a challenging 169-run target, with David Warner smashing 59 in 34-balls, which included six sixes and a four. Shane Watson too hammered five sixes and a boundary during his 32-ball 47, and shared a record 111 run opening stand for Australia in the final T20 match of the series.

Only Nasir Jamshed (17), Yasir Arafat (15) and Abdul Razzaq (13) could reach double figures as Australian pacemen Mitchell Starc (3-11) and Pat Cummins (3-15) ran through the Pakistan batting line-up. Razzaq and Arafat shared the highest partnership of the innings with 20, taking Pakistan past the lowest total in all Twenty20 i.e. 67 by Kenya against Canada in Belfast in 2008. Saeed Ajmal finished with 2-19, taking his tally to 60 wickets, which is the most by any bowler in Twenty20 cricket.

Pakistan pulled off a sensational Super Over win in the second Twenty20 on Friday, taking an insurmountable 2-0 lead after winning the first match of the series by seven wickets. The series win was extra special after it followed a 2-1 loss to Australia in the One-Day International (ODI) series, also pushing the opponents below Ireland to 10th in the ICC Twenty20 rankings. The two teams now head to Sri Lanka where the fourth edition of the World Twenty20 tournament begins on September 18th.

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