Kevin Pietersen fires England to Super Eights victory
Published:Thursday | May 6, 2010 | 6:34 PM
Kevin Pietersen starred as England beat Pakistan by six wickets with three balls remaining in the first Super Eight match of the ICC World 20/Twenty Championships at Kensington Oval in Barbados today.
Pietersen completed a brilliant catch in the deep before adding an unbeaten 73 off 52 balls as Pakistan\'s total of 147 for 9 proved inadequate.
England ended on 148 for four. Openers Michael Lumb and Criag Kieswetter scored 25 runs apiece to support Pietersen.
Saeed Ajmal was the most successful bowler for Pakistan with two for 15 off 3.3 overs.
Salman Butt 34 and Umar Akmal 30 got most runs for Pakistan.
Bowling for England, Michael Yardy ended on two for 19, Stuart Broad two for 25 and Ryan Sidebottom two for 28.
A victory on Saturday against South Africa at the same ground should now be enough to send England through to the semi-finals with a game to spare.
South Africa also got their Super Eights campaign off to a winning start, by defeating New Zealand by 13 runs in the second match at Kensington Oval.
Albie Morkel hammered five sixes in scoring 40 off 18 balls to propel South Africa to 170 for 4 and New Zealand were restricted to 157 for seven off their allotted 20 overs.
West Indies will open their Super Eights campaign tomorrow against Sri Lanka.