Amla, Perera guide World XI to series-levelling win against Pakistan

PAKISTAN would have gone to bed last night wondering how they failed to win the second T20 of this Independence Cup which would have sealed the series for the hosts.

A six off the penultimate ball by Thisara Perera sealed an extraordinary victory in Lahore.

This after the World XI had been kept in touch by the man at the other end, Hashim Amla, who played a sweetly-timed innings of 72 not from 55 balls.

Perera, though, was the gamechanger with the Sri Lankan slugger smashing 45 off only 19 balls.

He arrived at the crease after the dismissal of World XI captain Faf du Plessis (20 off 14 balls) with the visitors requiring 69 runs off the final six overs.

However, after eight balls he only had 12 and the World XI required 41 off 18 balls with the run-rate escalating to 13.66 per over.

A six off Rumman Raees in the next over got the engine started before Perera belted Sohail Khan for two maximums in the following over to sustain the momentum.

Between the two strikes Perera was dropped on the boundary by Shoaib Malik, but even at that stage it did not look consequential considering the enormity of the World XI’s task.

Pakistan were however made to rue that missed opportunity later on when Perera and Amla scored 13 runs off Raees’ final over to keep the series alive.

The Pakistan innings followed a similar trend to the series opener with Babar Azam once again top-scoring for the hosts after his man-of-thematch performance on Tuesday.

However, unlike the first game, he could not capitalise on his promising start.

Neither could Fakhar Zaman (21), Ahmed Shehzad (43) and Malik (39) which ultimately proved the difference on the night.