Afridi blitz sinks Uganda in Twenty20

ISLAMABAD—Shahid Afridi plundered seven 6s in his 57 not out off 15 balls as Pakistan thrashed South Africa by 148 runs in their opening match of the Quadrangular Twenty20 Tournament at Nairobi (Kenya) on Saturday.
Pakistan are playing this tournament to warm up for the Twenty20 World Cup starting in South Africa on September 11.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, Pakistan piled up 226 for three wickets in the allotted 20 overs and then restricted Uganda to 78 for seven wickets in the match played at Gymkhana Club Ground of Nairobi, according to reports available here.
Left-handed opener Salman Butt provided a solid platform in the Pakistan innings with a well-paced 74 not out off 55 balls with nine 4s and one 6.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal, sent in to bat after the fall of other opener Imran Nazir for a duck, contributed 31 off 23 balls with six boundaries in a second wicket stand of 70 with Salman Butt.
Younis Khan then joined Salman for a third wicket partnership of 67. Younis accumulated 51 off 26 deliveries with four 4s and three 6s. Shahid Afridi replaced Younis to savage the docile bowling at his favourite hunting ground where he had hammered a ODI world-record 102 off just 37 balls against Sri Lanka in a tournament back in 1996.
That record still stands as the hard-hitting batsman, later named man-of-the-match, showed little mercy to the Ugandans too, hitting three 4s and seven 6s in his swashbuckling knock.
R. Otim top-scored for Uganda with his painstaking 27 off 29 balls, with one 4 and two 6s, lower down the batting order. There were only three other boundaries in the innings, two by L. Sematimba and one by his fellow opener J. Olwenyi, and one other 6, by tailender Isaaneez, during the Ugandan innings.
Pacemen Umer Gul and skipper Shoaib Malik, bowling his off-breaks, took two wickets each as pace trio of Muhammad Asif, Iftikhar Anjum and Yasir Arafat scalped one batsmen each.—Agencies