A fine unbeaten 73 from Kevin Pietersen led England to a comfortable six-wicket victory over Pakistan in their opening Super Eight game at the Twenty20 World Cup on Thursday.
With plenty of English support watching in the Barbados sunshine, Paul Collingwood’s team had little trouble in surpassing Pakistan’s total of 147 with three balls to spare.
“Let’s not get too carried away, but we’re delighted with the win and to get some points on the board,” Collingwood told reporters.
PHOTO: AFP
Pakistan made a bright start, reaching 50 inside seven overs, but their momentum was lost after the introduction of spin with Graeme Swann picking up the vital wicket of opener Salman Butt, who had made 34 off 26 balls.
Slow left-armer Michael Yardy took two wickets, but the second major breakthrough wicket came when Pietersen made a superb running catch in the deep to get rid of Umar Akmal who had reached 30 in 25 balls.
Pakistan’s troubles were partially self-inflicted, skipper Shahid Afridi getting himself out attempting a run from his first ball.
PHOTO: AFP
Afridi’s day was to get substantially worse, however, when his team took the field.
England’s South African-born opening pair of Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter put on 44 for the first wicket.
Kieswetter was dropped in the first over by Ajmal, who spilled the same batsman again before giving Lumb a life.
Lumb (25) went in the sixth over, spinner Ajmal redeeming himself partially as he lured the England batsman down the track for a stumping, but Pietersen was in the mood for a match-winning display.
At first with Kieswetter (25) and then in a 60-run partnership with Collingwood (16), Pietersen struck the ball with power and intent.
Strutting around the crease, hampered only for a short while by a sore ankle after he struck his own foot, Pietersen made 73 from 52 balls, including eight fours and two sixes, to steer England home comfortably.
There were unnecessary nerves at the very end, the departures of Collingwood and Eoin Morgan leaving Luke Wright looking edgy even though the target had become a formality.
Pakistan even missed a golden chance to run out Pietersen in the 19th over, but he finished unbeaten and took the man of the match award.
“We need one more victory and hopefully we can get to a semi-final,” Pietersen said.
“The more you play, the better you get. Twenty20 cricket is serious business now,” he said.
Afridi was left to ponder the many errors made by his team.
“You can’t afford to miss opportunities and had we taken the opportunities the match could have turned out differently,” he said.
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AFP, BRIDGETOWN, Barbados
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori gave his side a stark warning to improve their performance or forget about reaching the semi-finals of the World Twenty20.
The Black Caps suffered their first loss of this tournament when they began the second round Super Eights with a 13-run loss to South Africa that was more comprehensive than the raw result suggests.
New Zealand’s attack was hammered by man-of-the-match Albie Morkel, who struck five sixes in an innings that lasted just 18 balls.
Together with A.B. de Villiers, who finished on 47 not out, he shared a stand of 72 in six overs towards the end of the innings as South Africa scored 170 for four at the Kensington Oval on Thursday.
“It’s the nature of Twenty20 that you can’t get it right every time, but there are crucial situations that you have to get right and this time it was the last four or five overs,” Vettori said.
Having previously defeated Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in the group phase, Vettori’s men will now probably need to beat both defending champions Pakistan and England if they are to reach the last four.
“Today [Thursday] wasn’t what I expected or what I want and we have to improve pretty quickly going into two must-win games now,” left-arm spinner Vettori added.
Against South Africa, several top order batsmen got starts but none could go on to play the significant innings required if New Zealand were to enjoy a successful run chase.
“It’s the nature of the format that your four overs can be brilliant one day and pretty tough the next and we are hoping for a quick turnaround from some of the guys’ performances today,” Vettori said.
“It’s hard to know what turns it round but hopefully we can adapt pretty quickly,” he said.
“It was probably the last five overs where we weren’t good enough. It’s a very small ground and when you have a destructive hitter like Albie Morkel it’s a very bad combination if you miss,” he said.
Meanwhile Vettori refused to attribute New Zealand’s poor display against South Africa to an inability to cope with a more lively pitch than the one they were used to in Guyana.
“It’s certainly not a quick wicket so it still suited us and we weren’t bothered by the wicket being drastically different to Guyana. But in Twenty20 you have to be almost perfect and we weren’t,” he said.
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