Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan plays a shot
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ICC Men's T20 World Cup Match 22: Pakistan vs Canada - Pakistan finally register a win to stay alive
After facing two back-to-back losses in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Pakistan made a strong comeback as they thumped Canada by seven wickets at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York in a Group A clash
Match Summary
Pakistan vs Canada, Match 22
Pakistan 107/3 (17.3 ov)
Canada 106/7 (20 ov)
Pakistan won by 7 wickets
Match Highlights
Mohammad Rizwan and captain Babar Azam starred as Pakistan stayed alive at the T20 World Cup with a seven-wicket win over Canada on Tuesday.
Knowing defeat would condemn them to a shock first round exit, Rizwan and Babar put on a match-winning second-wicket partnership of 63 as Pakistan reached their target of 107 with 15 balls to spare.
Opener Rizwan finished undefeated on 53 off 53 balls with two fours and a six for his 29th T20 international half-century while Babar made 33 off as many balls with one four and a six.
The victory came after the 2009 champions and runners-up in 2022 had lost both their first two Group A fixtures.
A stunning super-over humiliation at the hands of the United States was followed by a six-run loss to bitter rivals India in a game where they failed to chase down a modest 120-run target.
However, Tuesday's win at the same Nassau County International Stadium where they came up short against India may still not be enough to secure a place in the second round Super Eights.
Pakistan have two points with one game left while India and the United States both have four points from two wins apiece and remain favourites to progress to the next stage.
Despite the loss, Canada, with two points from three games, are still in the hunt for a Super Eights spot.
Dilon Heyliger took two of the Pakistan wickets to fall, dismissing recalled opener Saim Ayub for six and claiming the prized wicket of Babar, both men caught behind.
Earlier, Pakistan restricted Canada to 106-7 despite opener Aaron Johnson hitting his sixth international fifty.
Johnson demonstrated his attacking intent from the start, cracking successive boundaries off the first two balls he faced from Shaheen Shah Afridi.
The Jamaican born 33-year-old opener made 52 off 44 balls with four boundaries and four sixes before he was eventually out in the 14th over with the score on 73-6, clean-bowled by Naseem Shah.
Johnson was the only batsman in the top six to reach double figures as Pakistan's seamers took wickets on a regular basis.
Mohammad Amir clean-bowled Navneet Dhaliwal (four) with a 141 km/h delivery which sliced through the defences of the opener.
Shaheen recovered from conceding 10 runs off his first over to get rid of Pargat Singh (two) before Nicholas Kirton (one) was run out by a superb throw by Imad Wasim.
Haris Rauf sent back Shreyas Movva (two) -- for his 100th wicket in the format -- and Ravinderpal Singh (nought) in the space of three balls as Canada reached 55-5 after 10 overs.
Once Johnson was out, Canada struggled to press the accelerator and had added just 14 more runs off 20 balls when skipper Saad Bin Zafar (10) top-edged Amir to Rizwan behind the stumps.
Amir finished with 2-13 while Rauf claimed 2-26.
Match Stats
Canada Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Navneet Dhaliwal - 2.6 ov), 2-29 (Pargat Singh - 5.1 ov), 3-43 (Nicholas Kirton - 6.6 ov), 4-54 (Shreyas Movva - 9.3 ov), 5-54 (Ravinderpal Singh - 9.5 ov), 6-73 (Aaron Johnson - 13.3 ov), 7-87 (Saad Bin Zafar - 16.5 ov)
Pakistan Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Saim Ayub - 4.2 ov), 2-83 (Babar Azam - 14.4 ov), 3-104 (Fakhar Zaman - 17.2 ov)
Playing XI
Pakistan
Canada
Match Details
Date - 2024-06-11 14:30:00
Venue - Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York
Toss - Pakistan elected to bowl
Umpires - Adrian Holdstock (South Africa), Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka), Sam Nogajski (Australia TV)
Match Referee - Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka)
© CricDirect 2024
