Hafeez scripts easy victory for Pakistan in warm-up tie
ST AUGUSTINE (Trinidad), March 7: Mohammad Hafeez gave an impressive all-round performance to guide Pakistan to an emphatic 77-run victory over Canada in a World Cup warm-up match here on Tuesday (partially reported in Wednesday’s edition).
Hafeez top-scored with a solid 61 to help Pakistan post a challenging 273-8 and then grabbed three wickets with his tidy off-spin to restrict Canada to 196.
“Our batsmen and bowlers had good workouts in this game. We did a little bit of experiments by sending Younis Khan up front which allowed some other players to feature in the game,” said Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer.
“It was (skipper) Inzamam-ul-Haq's decision to try out Younis as an opener. It is an option, but don't read too much into it. Our main target is the opening World Cup match against the West Indies on March 13.”
Canada began the chase on an impressive note when Geoff Barnett (28) and Abdool Samad (27) put on 60 for the opening wicket, but could not keep the momentum against Pakistan's pace-spin combination.
Hafeez was brilliantly supported by seamer Rao Iftikhar who ended an early Canadian flourish with three wickets. Seamer Azhar Mahmood was the other notable wicket-taker with 2-24.
Qaiser Ali scored 37 and Ashif Mulla 31, but Canada never looked like threatening their opponents' total in a game reduced to 48-overs-a-side due to the collapse of a sightscreen. The game was held up for more than an hour.
Scoreboard
PAKISTAN:
Imran Nazir c Samad b Osinde 26
Younis Khan c Bagai b Cummins 11
Mohammad Yousuf c Sandher b Bhatti 21
Inzamam-ul-Haq c Mulla b Dhaniram 59
Shoaib Malik b Osinde 1
Mohammad Hafeez c sub b Dhaniram 61
Shahid Afridi st Bagai b Davison 0
Kamran Akmal not out 56
Azhar Mahmood b Cummins 23
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan not out 7
EXTRAS (LB-3, W-5) 8
TOTAL (for eight wkts, 48 overs) 273
FALL OF WKTS: 1-22, 2-60, 3-64, 4-66, 5-159, 6-160, 7-200, 8-256.
DID NOT BAT: Rao Iftikhar, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria.