Thisara Perera’s unbeaten 19-ball 47 helped World Xi win an improbable game in the penultimate ball of the nail-biting thriller in the 2nd T20I at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
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Hashim Amla carried his bat through out the innings, with an unbeaten 55-ball 72, as the World XI leveled the 3-match series 1-1 with the last T20I on Friday.
Pakistan set a total of 174 in their 20 overs after they won the toss and decided to bat first. Fakhar Zaman gave them a good start with Ahmed Shehzad playing the anchor role.
However, Zaman was lbw off Badree on 21, before Babar Azam and Ahmed Shehzad built yet another partnership.
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The duo went on to manage a 59-run stand, as the run-rate slowed down with Samuel Badree and Morne Morkel rushing through the overs. Shehzad scored 43, while Babar also managed 45 but both batters got out in quick succession.
Imad Wasim joined Malik, as the latter was in brilliant form. Wasim scored 15, before Perera struck twice in the same over to dismiss Wasim and Sarfraz, with the latter going on a golden duck. However, Malik’s 23-ball 39 helped Pakistan to a score of 174.
Tamim Iqbal and Hashim Amla gave the visitors a brilliant start to say the least, with 40 runs on the board in 4 overs. Tamim managed 23, before he was acrobatically caught at short fine leg by Shoaib Malik.
Tim Paine joined Hashim Amla, as the Pakistani spinners settled in, but Paine received a shocker, as he was knocked over by a ball that stood very low from Imad Wasim.
Faf du Plessis joined Amla, and started to hit from the start, as he smashed two maximums. On the other hand, Amla scored yet another T20I fifty, before du Plessis was caught in the deep off Nawaz.
Thisara Perera joined Amla with the World XI needing 69 off 36. Rumman Raees and Sohail Khan were bowling well, keeping World XI to get 63 from 30 balls.
Amla stroked boundaries off Raees, but with 49 needed off 21, Perera smashed his first six off Sohail Khan to get in the mood. Perera smashed another six in the next over, as World XI needed 33 off the last 12.
However, the Sri Lankan all-rounder smashed 2 sixes in the penultimate over by Sohail Khan, which costed 20, to give World XI 13 runs to get off the last over.
Rumman Raees had 6 runs to defend off the last 2 balls, before Perera smashed a full-toss over the long-on boundary to seal it in style.
The Man of the Match-award winning innings by Perera helped keep World XI in the series, with the 3rd and last game to be played on 15th September.
