Afridi double leaves Canada rocking

Afridi double leaves Canada rocking

Canada's dreams of a World Cup fairytale are still alive after their top order scrapped to within 111 runs of an upset against Pakistan with seven wickets in hand and 25 overs to spare in Colombo.

Shahid Afridi

With Umar Gul finding considerable new-ball movement and a teenage opening pair, Canada were always likely to struggle but Pakistan had been off the pace with the bat and looked in the sort of indifferent mood that frequently courts crisis.

Some scrappy wides and early misfields spelled trouble before Gul raised his game to shake Pakistan out of their slumber. Running in hard he swung a full ball under Ruvindu Gunasekera's angled bat to strike him plump in front. Wrongly, it was given not out to begin a series of umpiring mistakes that worked to emphasise the place the DRS has in the tournament. Hawk-Eye proved the ball pitching in line and hitting leg-stump half-way up.

Nitish Kumar, the touted 16-year-old batsman, has some way to go before he is up to the task of opening on the world stage but this may be Canada's last opportunity and the experience he gains will be invaluable. He required a review to overturn another umpiring mistake but was defeated three balls later when Abdur Razzaq took the umpire out of the equation by seaming through a yawning gate onto the stumps.

After the run-scoring feast dished up by some of the World Cup pitches, proceedings in Colombo were a welcome change. All the pace bowlers found movement in the air and off the track and the ball zipped around under lights. It was tough work for batting and Ashish Bagai resisted grimly. His intention may have been to inject some pace into Canada's innings and pin the pressure back on Pakistan but he was simply unable to.

The longer he resisted though, the more Pakistan would begin to worry and Zubin Surkari was proving solid at the other end. Finally Shahid Afridi broke the stand when he skidded a quicker ball past the defences to catch Bagai plump in front. Again Daryl Harper made the wrong decision but Afridi immediately called for a review which proved the obvious. The DRS has been under attack this tournament but these 25 overs proved its worth.