The Men in Green eased their way to a win over Namibia in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday became the first team from Group 2 of the Super 12 stage to make the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2021. The Asian giants had another big win that stretched their winning run to four games and also secured their berth in the knock-outs.
The Namibians made a reasonably good start with the ball in the first half but then lost all control of the proceedings for the rest of the match. Pakistan eventually came out on top by 45 runs after having posted a big score of 189/2.
That, despite being 29/0 at the end of the powerplay and 59/0 at the halfway mark. Once Pakistan batters got going, the Namibian bowlers had no answers to stop them.
The reason for Pakistan’s slow start was partly Namibia’s impressive execution and partly the early struggles of otherwise in-form opening batter Mohammed Rizwan. He just couldn’t time the ball off the square throughout the first half of the Pakistan innings, making just 16 off 25 balls at the 10th over mark.
But then he found his touch and flow back and blasted the inexperienced opposition bowling to all parts of the ground. Rizwan had a remarkable acceleration to his innings and hit a whopping 63 runs off the next 25 balls he faced till being dismissed. He hit a flurry of boundaries in that phase, including at the death, to not only stand resurrected with his innings but also take Pakistan to a giant score of 189/2.
Importantly for Pakistan, when Rizwan wasn’t finding the middle of the bat, his opening partner and skipper Babar Azam kept the innings afloat and ensured that even though the run rate is not to his team’s liking, they aren’t losing their heads and playing high-risk strokes.
Azam made another sedate but significant half-century (70 off 49) towards Pakistan’s cause. At one point in his innings, featuring seven fours, he looked like scoring another T20I century in his career. But the need to press on the next gear towards the finish saw him get caught out in the deep.
Once Babar departed, he was followed soon by Fakhar Zaman (5). But then the experienced Mohammad Hafeez (32*) produced a calculative assault on Namibian bowlers. Hafeez hardly looked to hit a ball in anger but focused on timing it through the gaps and ended with five fours in his fantastic cameo.
David Wiese (1/30) and Jan Frylinck (1/31) were the only Namibian bowlers to end with respectable figures. The rest went for plenty.
In the run-chase, the Namibians were never in the hunt. They lost an early wicket of Michael van Lingen (4). And though Stephan Baard (29) and Craig Williams (40) led their team’s fightback, the pace of scoring that Pakistan bowlers allowed them to operate at was such that a flurry of wickets seemed imminent.
That is exactly what happened as Namibia went from 55/1 to 110/5 with overs running out. Allrounder Wiese batted well for his unbeaten 43 towards the end, but Pakistan ultimately prevailed by a huge margin.
Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim (1/13) was in his element once again and gave next to nothing off his four overs, ensuring that the Namibian batters had to target other bowlers. And that, as has been the case with Imad and Pakistan, resulted in wickets. Hasan Ali (1/22) and Haris Rauf (1/25) were the other ones to end with impressive figures.
Brief scores
Pakistan 189/2 in 20 overs (Rizwan 79*, Azam 70; Wiese 1/30) beat Namibia 144/5 in 20 overs (Wiese 43*, Williams 40; Wasim 1/13) by 45 runs
