Toronto, Oct 11 : Pakistan thrashed hosts Canada by 35 runs in their opening match of the Al Barakah Twenty20 Canada Cup tournament at the beautiful Maple Leaf ground here. In another match, Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe by five wickets.
Batting first, the star-studded Pakistani batting line-up posted 137 for seven at the end of their allotted 20 overs, with Salman Butt top-scoring with 74 and winning the man of the match prize Friday.
The Pakistanis got off to a brisk start but lost debutant Shoaib Khan Jr at the score of 20.
However, opener Salman Butt and Younis Khan kept up the tempo before the latter was out for 13 at the score of 50.
Butt put the inexperienced Canadian bowling attack to the sword, scoring freely all around the wicket. Even as the wickets keep falling at the other end, he kept scoring freely till he was out for 74 which came off just 56 balls, including six hits to the boundary and three sixes.
For the hosts, Chandigarh lad Harvir Singh Baidwan and Usman Bhatti took three wickets each.
In response, Canada put up a valiant 102 for nine, falling short of the target by 35 runs. Barring the big-hitting Rizwan Cheema, no Canadian batsman got going as Shoaib Akhtar removed opener Abdool Samad for zero in the very first over and scalped Mohammad Iqbal for four in his next over.
Cheema and Manjo David fought bravely to take the score past 50 before the latter fell at the score of 65. After this, there was no stopping the Pakistani bowlers as Umar Gul, Sohail Tanveer and Shahid Afridi all chipped in with wickets.
In the other match, batting first, Zimbabwe were given an explosive start by their openers. But Mahroof struck to remove both the openers in the first four overs.
However, Tatenda Taibu dug in, remaining not out with 40 off 40 balls even as wickets kept falling at the other end.
Ajantha Mendis, who took three for 15, was declared man of the match.
Sri Lanka opened their chase with a blistering 36 by openers Mahela Lakmal Udawatte and Tillakaratne Dilshan before Udawatte was out for 25 in the fifth over.
Dilshan steadied the innings as other Sri Lankan batsmen fell cheaply.
Before he fell for 33 at the score of 77, he had put Sri Lanka within reach of the victory which they claimed with five batsmen and six balls to spare.
For Zimbabwe, Ray Price took two for nine.
--- IANS
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