Twitter Reactions: Pakistan mark the historic occasion with a series win

Shehzad's 83 and a tight bowling effort won Pakistan the Independence Cup.

By Ankit Mishra

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Pakistan
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Pakistani cricketers celebrate. (Photo by AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images)

The World XI, once again failed to play like a team of the XI best players from around the world as they stumbled, fumbled and in the end crumbled against the Pakistani bowling line-up to suffer a 33-run defeat in the 3rd T20I. With that, Pakistan marked the historic occasion with a 2-1 series win in the Independence Cup.

Being asked to bat first the home team posted a formidable 184-run target for the visitors to chase down if they wished to claim the Cup. But yet another middle order failure and the World XI looked spineless. Once Thisara Perera who continued his fireworks pretty much from where he left in the previous game was gone it was just a formality.

Faf du Plessis won the toss but decided to bowl first, Sarfraz Ahmed having won the previous two tosses had preferred to bat since they have the bowling line-up that can put the World XI under pressure when there is a big total on the board. Ahmed Shehzad rose to the occasion this time, though Fakhar Zaman failed to capitalize on the start he got, as he was unfortunately run out for 27.

Shehzad then had an innings shaping partnership with Babar Azam as the duo stitched together a hundred plus runs partnership. While Babar missed out on a half century Shehzad came hard at Ben Cutting hitting him for three consecutive sixes; the first for a Pakistani batter.

He was splendid till he was there but missed out with the hundred in sight, being run out on 89. Shoaib Malik’s quickfire runs took them to 183/4 in 20 overs. Only Perera was the one bowler who registered wickets to his name as he got two.

World XI, in their reply lost Tamim Iqbal early, Ben Cutting was out cheap, so were Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and George Bailey who struggled to get bat on ball. David Miller and Thisara Perera blew a few meaty blows to keep the visiting team in the fray but once the latter was caught beautifully by Babar off Rumman Raees it was curtains.

Hasan Ali made a great comeback after a poor first game to pick two wickets in his four overs for 28 runs while Imad Wasim and Usman Khan shared one apiece. In the end World XI despite all the names in the team failed to cruise past the total and lost the Independence Cup to an inspired Pakistan team.

Here is how Twitterati reacted during the course of the game:

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