Saeed Ajmal and sparkling Umar Akmal gave a hope to Pakistan

T20 world Cup 2010: South Africa were knocked out of the World T20 by living up to their reputation of coming up short in crunch matches after a Charl Langeveldt masterclass in end innings bowling had kept Pakistan to a gettable total. The bedrock of the defending champions' first victory in the Super8 were Saeed Ajmal and sparkling Umar Akmal cameo, but Pakistan will also thank the South African top order for idling early in the chase.
Like in the first round game against India, South Africa left the onslaught for too late. On a track which did not have too many demons, they were just 3 fours and 3 twos in the first 10 overs from a line up bosting some of the world's boom boom hitters. AB de Villiers responded to the climbing asking rate with some belated power hitting, but once he fell attempting an audacious scoop, Pakistan's bowlers choked the runs again and South Africa went down by 11 runs.
The match was slipping away from South Africa when they were at 71 for 4 after 13 overs, but AB de Villiers exploded with a four and 2 sixes in one Abdur Rehman over to keep it alive. The second of those brought up his half century (53runs), and a roar from a pumped up AB de Villiers but when his attempted scoop off yet another Ajmal doosra lobbed to the keeper, Pakistan were back in charge.
South Africa's bowlers were immaculate at the start to keep Pakistan's traditionally fragile top order to 19 for 3 wickets, the worst performance in the 1st six overs in this competition. Exhibit, A poor shots was from Salman Butt, who pulled a short and wide delivery that he would have been better off looking to cut. Then the man picked to strengthen the batting, Khalid Latif, chipped to wide mid On before Muhammad Hafeez's troubles with the bat continued when he was lbw for 1.
The Akmal brothers started the firefighting by taking on the spinners. van der Merwe was clobbered for 3 straight sixes in 5 deliveries before Gibbs swooped at backward point to get rid of Kamran, but with Pakistan batting down to No. 8 the game was even at 69 for 4 after 11 overs.
The flood of runs continued with arrival of boob boom Afridi. Umar Akmal wowed the crowd with a paddle scoop over short fine off the pacy Kallis, and Afridi muscled boundaries over cover and midwicket. The horrors at the start were completely forgotten by the sprinkling of Pakistan fans in the ground after Umar Akmal scuttled across the stumps to swing Albie over deep backward square leg and Afridi absolutely hammered a flat six over long-on to take Pakistan to 102 for 4 after 14 overs, with the finisher Abdul Razzaq still to come.
3 fours were taken off a Dale Steyn over and Umar Akmal was flamboyantly celebrating his half century (51runs) after blasting Langeveldt for a straight six on the first delivery of the 17th over. Things unraveled swiftly from there, with Umar holing out to long on and Shahid Afridi being bowled by a full delivery from Langeveldt 3 balls later. There were no more boundaries and Pakistan finished with a whimper, only 16 coming off the final 3 Overs with help of
" Great test Cricketer Misbah-ul-Haq ".
However, Pakistan lived up to their billing of being most dangerous when cornered by stubbornly defending the small total to retain an outside chance of progressing to the semi finals.
After second match England vs Newzealand, Pakistan was hopeful and congratulate to remarkable and marvelous team effort of the English team defeated the Kiwis, Weldon England you gave us a light of hope, now lucky Pakistan will be play semifinal against Favorite Australia.