Afridi propels Pakistan into second round

The Netherlands, who needed to score at least 151 to advance to the Super Eight stage at the expense of their opponents, tumbled to 93 all out from 17.3 overs, losing by 82 runs.

They had needed to get to within 25 of Pakistan’s 175 for five to advance to the second round with England by virtue of their superior run rate after upsetting the tournament hosts last Friday.

The first six Pakistan batsmen all reached double figures with wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, promoted to opener in a bid to accelerate the scoring rate, top-scoring with 41 from 30 balls with three sixes.

In reply, the Netherlands reached 42 for one before the Pakistan spinners, headed by Afridi, took control.

Afridi, whose faster delivery confounded all the Dutch batsmen, bowled Bas Zuiderent with his first ball.

He went on to record the fourth-best figures in all Twenty20 cricket while off-spinner Saeed Ajmal took three for 20 and Akmal finished with four stumpings.

The only blot on Pakistan’s day was their fallible fielding.

After the team had dropped four catches in their 48-run loss to England on Sunday, Shoaib Malik allowed a chance to slip through his fingertips in the gully and Salman Butt dropped a simple chance at short fine-leg.

Pakistan scored 175-5 and must bowl Netherlands out for under 151 at Lord’s to avoid being eliminated from the Twenty20 World Cup.

Kamran Akmal made 41 and captain Younis Khan 36, but Pieter Seelar claimed two wickets as the Dutch bowlers successfully stifled the Pakistan batsmen.

Needing to win by 25 runs to qualify for the Super 8s, Pakistan — which lost its opening game to England on Sunday — opted to bat after winning the toss.

It put on 38 for the first wicket, before Salman Butt was caught by Peter Borren off Ryan ten Doeschate in the covers.

Bas Zuiderent then dropped Shoaib Malik, denying ten Doeschate a second wicket with the score at 67-1. Akmal was removed by Seelaar, caught by Edgar Schiferli at deep mid-wicket in the 10^th over.

The Dutch bowled tightly to stem the run rate and as the pressure on Pakistan grew Malik miscued a Peter Borren delivery and was caught by Seelaar in the 13^th over.

Pakistan finally started to hit out in the 15^th over, when they added 15 runs.

Khan hit Seelaar for successive sixes in the 17^th over, but he was then caught by Tom de Grooth.