Updated on
Summary
South Africa completed a 2-0 sweep in the Twenty20 internationals against Pakistan, by cruising to a six-wicket victory in the second game in Abu Dhabi.The hosts, who turned in a poor batting display in the opening game yesterday when they set 120, were equally poor today in managing to set 121 for victory with Juan Theron grabbing four wickets for 27. The Proteas cruised for most of the response with Graeme Smith (38) and Colin Ingram (32) helping their side cross the line with 10 balls to spare. After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Pakistan's innings bore several similarities from 24 hours earlier. They lost wickets in clusters, there was poor decision making and they had to again rely on newly appointed Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq (33) to see them to a respectable total. Pakistan needed early wickets, but got none as Smith and Loots Bosman (11) put on 38 for the first wicket, before Shahid Afridi came in and struck immediately. Afridi should then have taken the wicket of Smith in the ninth over, but Umar Akmal spilt a regulation chance at long-off. AB de Villiers also fell for 11, before Afridi ended his miserly spell with 1-13. There was a little more pressure when Smith was stumped with 53 still needed from 40. Pakistan's captain blamed poor batting for the series loss. We needed good starts but that didn't come in both the matches, said Afridi. My own performance was not up to the mark so we have to sit down and plan to improve our batting which is struggling, he added. The two teams now play the first of five one-day internationals in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
