By IANS
Kingsmead : An all-round performance by Shahid Afridi helped Pakistan easily beat a weak Scotland by 51 runs in a Group D match of the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship here Wednesday.
Afridi slammed 22 off just seven balls, hitting two sixes and a boundary, and then captured four wickets for 19 runs from four overs to win the Man-of-the-Match award at Kingsmead ground.
Pakistan made 171 for nine wickets in 20 overs, thanks to Younis Khan’s 41 (29 balls, 3x4s, 2x6s) and then bowled Scotland out for 120 in 19.5 overs to win with one ball to spare.
Pakistani pacer Umar Gul, who too like Afridi took four wickets, missed a hat-trick. He dismissed Craig Wright and John Blain off successive deliveries in the innings’ 17th over, but Dewald Nel denied him the honour of becoming the first man to perform a hat-trick.
Although Pakistan won easily, their batting did not rise to great heights. Only Younis, Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq (23, 16 balls, 4x4s) managed to score some runs.
But these runs were enough to beat Scotland, who are still trying to absorb the experience of playing at the international level.
Wright was the pick of the five-man Scotland bowling attack as he took three wickets for 29 in four overs.
Scotland may have lost, but opener Fraser Watts had the honour of making the top score of the match with 46 (35 balls, 9x4s). No other batsman did so well and as expected Scotland lost to a far superior team.
SCOREBOARD
Pakistan vs. Scotland, Twenty20 World Championship, Kingsmead, Durban
Pakistan:
Salman Butt c Haq b Blain 13
Imran Nazir c Hamilton b Blain 4
Mohammad Hafeez c & b Wright 18
Younis Khan c Watts b Haq 41
Shoaib Malik st Smith b Haq 11
Shahid Afridi c Haq b Wright 22
Misbah-ul-Haq b Wright 23
Kamran Akmal c Watts b Nel 16
Yasir Arafat b Nel 17
Umar Gul not out 0
Extras: (bye 1, wides 5) 6
Total: (for nine wickets in 20 overs) 171
Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Nazir, 2.1 overs), 2-24 (Butt, 4.6), 3-50 (Hafeez, 7.4), 4-81 (Malik, 12.1), 5-108 (Afridi, 13.4), 6-116 (Younis, 15.1), 7-146 (Misbah, 17.6), 8-159 (Akmal, 19.2), 9-171 (Arafat, 19.6)
Bowling:
John Blain 4 0 23 2
Dewald Nel 4 1 25 2
Dougie Brown 4 0 44 0 (3w)
Majid Haq 4 0 49 2
Craig Wright 4 0 29 3 (1w)
Scotland:
Fraser Watts c Nazir b Hafeez 46
Ryan Watson c Hafeez b Gul 2
Navdeep Poonia b Gul 4
Gavin Hamilton c Gul b Afridi 2
Neil McCallum c Asif b Afridi 0
Dougie Brown c Nazir b Afridi 1
Colin Smith c Arafat b Afridi 11
Majid Haq b Asif 14
Craig Wright b Gul 14
John Blain b Gul 0
Dewald Nel not out 13
Extras: (lb 7, w 5, nb 1) 13
Total: (all out in 19.5 overs) 120
Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Watson, 1.6 overs), 2-38 (Poonia, 5.2), 3-53 (Hamilton, 7.2), 4-54 (McCallum, 7.5), 5-59 (Watts, 8.4), 6-60 (Brown, 9.1), 7-79 (Smith, 11.4), 8-102 (Wright, 16.2), 9-102 (Blain, 16.3)
Bowling:
Mohammad Asif 3.5 0 28 1
Umar Gul 4 0 25 4 (1nb, 2w)
Mohammad Hafeez 4 0 24 1 (1w)
Shahid Afridi 4 0 19 4 (2w)
Yasir Arafat 3 0 14 0
Shoaib Malik 1 0 3 0
Result: Pakistan won by 51 runs
Points: Pakistan win 2
Man of the Match: Shahid Afridi (Pakistan)
Umpires: Simon Taufel (Australia) and Steve Davis (Australia)
TV umpire: Billy Doctrove (West Indies)
Match referee: Mike Procter (South Africa)