Pakistan beat South Africa by seven runs in the semi-final of the Twenty20 cricket world cup and reached the final?of the tournament. Pakistan bat first and scored 149-4, which include a match winning knock by Shahid Afridi.

Pakistan started their innings so well and Kamran Akmal scored 23 runs which also includes a massive six but Shahzaib Hassan failed to score and got out on a duck. Younis khan the captain of Pakistan sent afridi after the dismissal and he responded well at Trent Bridge. And Afridi was supported by Shoaib Malik, who scored 38 runs and helped Pakistan setting up the total. Shahid Khan Afridi was the star performer and gave all-round performance for Pakistan, scoring 51 runs from 34 balls and also took 2 important wickets for 16 runs from his 4 overs spell.

In reply, south Africa were got out at 142-5, only Jacques Kallis responded well and scored 64 runs. Afridi took two crucial wickets but the total was not good enough to made Pakistan feel secure. But a twist at the story occurred when Younis Khan gave ball to fawad alam to ball his first over of his first over of the tournament and Kallis avails the opportunity and struck 15 important runs to their total, but Umar Gul, the best bowler of the tournament, comes to attack and restricted SA batsmen from scoring and bowled a wonderful spell. And after the dismissal of Kallis, no other batsman could respond well and Pakistan secure their place in the finals.

Afridi was declared the man of the match for his outstanding performance and said that he is very happy to see his team in the final.

South Africa were unbeaten before last night?s game but Smith hails his team performance and accept that they were not the best team last night.

Shahid Afridi