Pakistan snatch win from the jaws of defeat

Pakistan held nerves and snatch a Twenty20 thriller from the jaws of defeat to win the shorter format of the game series on Friday night at jam-packed Dubai international cricket stadium.Australia slipped to 10th spot after defeat in the world in the shortest form of the game after losing a super over thriller to Pakistan. The 25,000 crowd enjoyed every moment of the match and cheered every shot, good fielding and wickets from rival sides. Razzaq proved to be the unsung hero for Pakistan, who held his nerve in the super over and restricted Australia to 150 runs that helped Pakistan tie the match.Match went to super over and Australia batted first while Umar Gul bowled the over from Pakistan and restricted Aussies to 11 with the wicket of Warner while Hussey went not out.Pakistan opened the innings with Umar Akmal and Abdul Razzaq who achieved the target on the last ball. At that stage if the two teams tied then Pakistan was declared winner surely as they cracked more boundaries in the super over than Australia.Pakistan skipper had more options and instead of Umar he should have sent to Kamran Akmal or explosive batsman Imran Nazir who is famous for his lusty hitting to achieve target easily as Umar struggled and missed a couple of deliveries that might let Pakistan down.But the luck was with Pakistan and they achieved the target and maintained their victories records of winning matches on Friday. Pakistan jumped to fourth from sixth in the Twenty20 rankings and victory helps in boosting team confidence."I am happy in the way players are responding to me as captain. Everyone is confident and this is a great sign for the team ahead of the World Twenty20," said Hafeez after the match.Pakistan, who won the second Twenty20 World Cup in 2009 and are ranked fourth in the world, will play New Zealand and Bangladesh in their group matches. Hafeez said: "As captain I hope from here on, the players will continue to keep momentum in the World Twenty20 in which Pakistan are placed in Group D along with New Zealand and Bangladesh."Earlier, Pakistan batting first scored 150 runs in the allotted overs. Pakistan after losing earlier wicket of Imran Nazir, Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed steadied Pakistan innings and took total to over 90 and at that stage it was evident that Pakistan will make over 170 plus runs but unluckily Nasir Jamshed was caught at mid-off at the hands of Christian who took unbelievable match that might be the best catch of the series. Hafeez followed soon as Umar Akmal and Kamran Akmal take to settle and wasted a lot of deliveries that kept Pakistan 20 plus runs shot and the hosts ended their innings for 150 runs. At that time Abdul Razzaq should be sent for batting before Umar Akmal that can help Pakistan to score more runs than the total of 150. Being a big hitter Razzak should played better than Umar. Australian played planned game but unfortunately they fail to achieve the target while they were on driving seat throughout the match. After the ouster of skipper George Bailey no other batsman could face Pakistan bowling attack and were restricted to 150 runs for the loss of nine wickets and the match went to super over.Australia floored a few chances which helped Pakistan to reach 150 and if they these catches were taken then it was difficult for Pakistani batsmen to score too much runs. But Christian took a brilliant catch and crowd cheered of this effort while Nasir Jamshed was surprised because that was impossible.Australia captain George Bailey was disappointed over Twenty20 series loss against Pakistan but he was quick to take the positives and praise the second match. Australia will begin this month's Twenty20 World Cup ranked 10th in the world in the shortest form of the game after losing a thriller to Pakistan in a 'super over' in Dubai. Having been beaten by seven wickets in their first match by Pakistan earlier in the week, Australia lost the series 2-0 and dropped behind Ireland in the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings. A Australia skipper George Bailey, who hit a brilliant 42 off 27 balls in the losing effort, was nevertheless upbeat after an improved performance by his team. "I'm really pleased that we played a lot closer to what we're capable of," he added. "I think our guys will take a lot of confidence out of it as we went so close to win the match, and then to lose, leaves a lot of questions in your head." Australia may have lost the match but all-rounder Dan Christian stole the show after taking one of the greatest catches ever seen on a cricket field. Australia, losing finalists at the last Twenty20 World Cup in 2010, have been grouped with Ireland and West Indies in the opening stage of the fourth version of the tournament, which takes place in Sri Lanka from September 18 to October 7. "It was undoubtedly a good game of cricket," Bailey said. "Whenever a game is so close it always goes through your mind the different things you could have done while fielding or batting, or even in the super overs.Bailey said after the match that he learned a lot about the rules of the game because if it was a tie Pakistan would have won anyway because they hit more boundaries in the super over.