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| Pakistan punish Holland ![]() Afridi was at his most belligerent with the bat ICC Champions Trophy, Colombo: Pakistan 142-1 (16.2 ovs) beat Holland 136 all out (50 ovs) by nine wickets Shahid Afridi clobbered the Dutch attack for one of the fastest half-centuries of all time in this facile win for Pakistan. Afridi took just 18 balls to reach 55 not out, launching spinner Adeel Raja for his sixth six in a whirlwind effort to seal the win with nearly 34 overs unused. It was one ball more than Sanath Jayasuriya needed to reach fifty against Pakistan in Singapore six years ago, and equalled Afridi's own best effort. Simon O'Donnell hit the first 18-ball fifty, in Sharjah in 1990, against Sri Lanka.
Earlier, Afridi's leg-spin accounted for three Dutchmen while Waqar Younis took two wickets in an essentially 'dead' match with Sri Lanka having already progressed from pool four. Shoaib Akhtar clinched the first victim of the day, after Holland captain Roland Lefebvre won the toss and elected to bat. Daan van Bunge was back in the pavilion with only three runs on the board after being caught at first slip. The wickets continued to fall rapidly. Feiko Kloppenburg was soon run out then Waqar found himself on a hat-trick. First Bas Zuiderent was caught at slip before Henke Mol was bowled playing no shot. Luuk van Troost and Tim de Leede, Holland's best batsman, restored some pride with a 55-run fifth-wicket partnership. That ended, though, when de Leede was trapped lbw by Afridi after hitting the spinner for one huge six over square leg in an enterprising innings of 24. Lefebvre restores pride And Afridi struck again moments later, having van Troost caught behind by Rashid Latif for 16, before dismissing JJ Esmeijer lbw without scoring. At 84 for seven, a score in three figures did not look likely, but veteran skipper Roland Lefebvre hit an unbeaten 32 off 70 balls to give some respectability to the total. Adeel Raja was clean bowled by Abdur Razzaq on the last ball of the match after putting on 23 with Lefebvre for the last wicket. Saeed Anwar and Imran Nazir opened the batting for Pakistan, with Nazir the only man dismissed, caught in the deep after making 59 off 40 balls. Pakistan: Imran Nazir, Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdur Razzaq, Rashid Latif (Wkt), Waqar Younis (Capt), Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami. Holland: J F Kloppenburg, D L S van Bunge, B Zuiderent, T B M de Leede, H J C Mol, L P van Troost, R H Scholte (Wkt), J J Esmeijer, A K Raja, R P Lefebvre (Capt), E Schiferli. Umpires: David Orchard & Rudi Koertzen. Third umpire: Daryl Harper |
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