Shaiman Anwar becomes the leading run scorer in WC. Pakistan beat UAE.

Pakistan fans have finally something to cheer; especially the faithfuls of Ahmed Shehzad.

Pakistan comfortably beat UAE by 129 runs to register only their second win in the world cup so far. Coming from a not so convincing victory over Zimbabwe, Pakistan was looking up to their batsman once UAE captain Mohammad Tauqir won the toss and put Pakistan into bat.

Pakistan though had a disastrous start losing Nasir Jamshed early in the innings when the score had just reached 10. Jamshed again threw his wicket away in attemting a pull to a ball bowled by Manjula Guruge and gave a simple catch to the mid on fielder. Pakistan were in a similar sort of a situation as they have been in the previous matches, but they finally adopted the blueprint that saw other teams sail over 300. Ahmed Shehzad and Haris Sohail, batted sensibly against the new ball ensuring that they did not lose more wickets.

Shehzad and Sohail shared a 160 run partnership before Sohail got out while trying to up the ante. They both played cautiously and laid a platform for the big hitters to come. Shehzad soon got run out on 93 missing a century leaving Pakistan with two new batsman at the score of 176-3. As things were starting to drift away, Pakistani captain Misbah and Shoaib Maqsood steadied things and finally Pakistan were in a good position to dismantle the UAE bowlers in the final overs. Misbah’s innings along with cameos from Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi saw Pakistan give UAE a mammoth target of 340.

Pakistani bowlers were right on the money bowing a tight line to the UAE batsmen. Although UAE resisted in the first 6 overs they finally lost their first wicket at the score of 19 to Rahat Ali. They soon lost two more wickets, both picked up by Sohail Khan and UAE were left stranded at 25 for 3. After they lost 3 wickets in quick succession there was only one result possible in this game and that was a Pakistani win. Even though Khurram Khan and and Shaiman Anwar put on 83 runs together, it was never enough to take the game away from Pakistan but credit must be given to Emirates batsmen for batting through the 50 overs.

Shaiman Anwar scored 62 runs and the UAE innings ended at the score of 210 for 8 at the end of 50 overs. There were many positives for UAE from this match. Anwar has now become the leading run scorer in the tournament scoring 270 runs at an average of 67.5. Also, this was their highest score against any top 8 nations in ODIs.

Pakistan on the other hand, batted excellently but bowled well in patches which was evident from their inability to take all the wickets. They were expected to win this one which is what they did and now they have a big match coming up this Saturday against the proteas.

Pakistan 339 for 6 (Shehzad 93, Sohail 70, Misbah 65, Guruge 4-56) beat UAE 210 for 8 (Anwar 62, Afridi 2-35) by 129 runs