South Africa win Hong Kong Sixers Cup Championship
Colin Ingram played a captain’s knock with the bat and then came back
and proved he is no mean bowler too, as he led South Africa to a sweet
Cup victory over Pakistan at the Karp Group Hong Kong Sixes on Sunday.
Ingram smacked an unbeaten 34 and then grabbed three wickets in a superb
all-round performance as South Africa romped to a 37-run win to deny
Pakistan a record sixth Cup title at the Hong Kong Sixes. It was South
Africa’s fourth Cup championship.
“It has been an awesome event. The guys really enjoyed themselves and
each other’s company and we just stuck to what we had done all week,
which was to bowl tightly and field well. And our batting clicked as
well,” said Ingram after lifting the winner’s purse of US$40,000.
Pakistan won the toss and put their adversaries into bat. With the
Akmal brothers, skipper Kamran and Umar, firing all weekend, the
defending champions believed their strength lay in their ability to run
down any score.
But it was a daunting task that South Africa set them, posting 142
thanks to the top four – openers David Miller and Robert Frylinck, and
then Dillon Du Preez and Ingram – firing on all cylinders.
Pakistan’s first three bowlers, Hammad Azam, Umar Akmal and Yasir
Shah, all proved expensive. Azam was smacked for 29 runs while Akmal and
Shah gave away 39 runs each as the South African batsmen feasted on the
bowling, hitting 16 sixes between them.
Left-arm seamer Junaid Khan and Awais Zia gave Pakistan a semblance
of a chance by bowling two tight final overs as South Africa finished on
142.
“It was a tough target but we still believed we could score the
runs,” said dejected captain Kamran Akmal. “We pulled it back a bit in
the last two bowling overs and I felt we still had a good chance of
chasing it down.”
The Akmal brothers began the run-chase superbly as Pakistan reached
53 for no loss with both the openers retiring having passed the
obligatory 31-run mark. It was then that Ingram made his presence felt
for the second time in the match, grabbing three wickets – Zia, Azam and
Shah all caught going for big hits.
Kamran Akmal returned to the crease with two overs to go and Pakistan
needing a further 59 runs. Junaid Khan then ran himself out to allow
Umar Akmal to join his elder sibling but the dream chase never
materialized.
Kamran added another 19 runs but on 51, was caught by Lyall Meyer off
the bowling of Frylinck, top-edging an ambitious shot.
Cricinfo |
