Pakistan through to 2009 ICC World T20 final

_{Published by: Deepak Rana}
^{Published: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 at 01:19 IST}

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Nottingham: Pakistan thrashed South Africa by seven runs to enter the ICC World Twenty20 final.

Pakistani bowlers defended the 150 total brilliantly.

Pakistan will face the winner of Sri Lanka vs West Indies in the second semi-final on June 21.

Shahid Afridi was adjudged man of the match for his allround performance with the bat and ball.

Pakistan have posted a target of 150 runs against South Africa. Pak lost 4 wickets.

Pakistan were 144/4 in 19 overs.

Younis was at 21 runs. Razzaq was at 11 runs.

Malik was out at 34 runs off 40 balls c Botha b Merwe.

Shahid Afridi was out at 51 runs when he was c De Villiers b Duminy at the first ball of 13th over.

Shahzaib Hasan left as Pakistan's first wicket who was duck by getting c Van Der Merwe b Steyn.

Kamran Akmal was c Morkel b Dale who scored 23 runs before he walked back to pavillion.

Pakistan skipper Younus Khan won the toss and elected to bat first against South Africa in the first semi-finals of ICC World Twenty20 here at Trent Bridge.

Unchanged Pakistan have decided to bat first in the crucial match while Jaques Kallis in for South Africa.

South Africa and Pakistan will lock horns in order to seal the match for a victory since both the teams are considered probable of winning the Twenty20 Cup.

South Africa looks more dominant in front of the Pakistan Team. They have stormed into the semi-finals by emerging victorious in 5 matches back-to-back. The team have displayed some easy wins and also some close encounters against various other contenders in the format.

The proteas have the history of reaching only one semi-final on their way of winning the Champions Trophy back in 1998 otherwise they haven't won any other semis. So this is the match South Africa should strive for and perform well in order to play in the final.

Proteas have an image of stumbling in their crucial matches where they would come unbeaten all the way and then lose at the last stage. The batting force of the team has thrilled with the kind of performance they have delivered showcasing continuous and backing forms of batsmen.

The South African batsmen performed well at several occasions to bless their teams with non-stop wins in the event. The bowlers too have given tremendous efforts to restrict up opposition teams to particular amount of runs, they would certainly provide their best of the attempts to bring down the Pakistan's batting force.

Pakistan can be viewed as a team which is unpredictable about the sort of performance they may deliver since after getting defeated at two critical situations, they have had a glorious comeback to enter the semi-final.

Bowlers were their only heroes as they were the ones which helped the team come out as victors. They lack influential batting line-up which has every now and then put the Green Brigade into trouble by scoring low over the board putting up pressure over the bowlers who then also performed brilliantly in such a situation.

Pakistan were the runner-up team in the last event of T20 World Cup and they would be seeking yet another final as a result from this match.