Shoaib unleashes his fury

[n_abbasi]

Led by a satisfying performance in the field, especially by their spinners and pace spearhead Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistan ended up as comfortable winners by eight wickets against Kenya in the final match of the Quadrangular Tournament here in Nairobi on Tuesday.

Chasing a paltry 93, victory was achieved with the loss of only two wickets with Shoaib Malik, opening the innings with Mohammad Hafeez, scoring an aggressive 42 and Misbah-ul-Haq finishing things off with a well-paced 31. Fawad Alam, the left-arm debutant, was the other not-out batsman as Pakistan romped home with six overs to spare.

Earlier, Kenya, who won the toss and batted, got off to a poor start when Shoaib Akhtar grabbed two early wickets; David Obuya caught at second slip by Misbah and Jimmy Kamande’s mistimed pull taken by Salman Butt at mid-on.

Tanmay Mishra struck two fours off Akhtar but was deceived by a quicker ball to be trapped in front by Alam. Kenya slid to 43 for 5 after Abdur Rehman, also a left-arm spinner, claimed two wickets in quick succession; Thomas Odoyo was stumped by Kamran Akmal and Tony Suji was bowled sweeping.

Alam and Rehman did not concede a boundary, and Malik, exploiting the effectiveness of the spinners, brought on Younis Khan and Hafeez; both of whom picked up wickets in their first over. Alex Obanda was stumped while Collins Obuya, Kenya’s highest scorer with 17, was bowled by Hafeez.

Rajesh Bhudia struck Hafeez over the long-on boundary, but Lameck Onyango was stumped off the same bowler. With his third stumping, Akmal had now broken the Twenty20 record for the most stumpings in an innings.

Younis then claimed his second wicket when Budhia missed a slog. Peter Ongondo hit a six over long-on, but was caught at long-off by Rehman while attempting another big stroke as Younis finished with career-best figures of 3 for 18.

Pakistan, together with Kenya and Bangladesh, now head to South Africa for a few warm-up matches before the start of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 on September 11.

[Kool Guy]