Pakistan, already out for contention for a place in the last four after their heavy loss to host nation Sri Lanka in the opening match of the competition, earned a thumping nine-wicket victory against Holland in the tenth match of the ICC Champions Trophy at the S.S.C ground in Colombo on Saturday.

Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi (55 not out), smashed the second fastest ODI half-century of all time, equaling his previous best off the same number of balls made against Sri Lanka in 1996, to help crush the babes of the tournament.

All the Dutch bowlers, especially the slower variety came in for a terrible mauling from Afridi as the young Pathan blazed his way to an 18-ball fifty which included 4 fours and 6 sixes.

Seasoned opener Saeed Anwar (28 not out) was reduced to a mere spectator as he first watched his opening partner Imran Nazir who hit a belligerent 59 off 40 balls studded with eleven powerfully smacked fours and later witnessed the World record holder for the fastest hundred in ODIs put on his incredible show.

Nazir, who it seemed had an early engagement elsewhere got himself out as he had the Dutch bowlers at his mercy giving debutant Kloppenburg his maiden wicket in ODIs.

Earlier the Dutch batsmen came a cropper against a potent Pakistani pace attack after they chose to bat first. They struggled all the way to 136 and lost their last wicket to the last ball of the innings, Afridi’s 3 for 18 in ten overs and Pakistani skipper Waqar Younis’ 2 for 14, the men largely responsible for Holland’s low total.

They also had the ignominy of Mr. Extras top-scoring with 33 while skipper Roland Lefebvre came next best with a quiet unbeaten 32. Tim de Leede who was the best of the batsman against Sri Lanka contributed 24.

Afridi’s all-round brilliance of three wickets, a direct hit from cover-point to get rid of one of Holland’s opening batsmen J Kloppenburg, followed by a thunderous innings which took the Pakistanis to victory with 202 balls to spare, was unanimously chosen as Man-of-the-Match.

Statistical Highlights:
---By Daniel Puran Singh

• This was the second ODI between Pakistan and Holland, The only other match between these two teams was in the 1996 Wills World Cup.
• Jan Kloppenburg and Hendrik Mol were making their ODI debut. This takes the number of players for Holland to 22.
• The total of 136 by Holland had 32 extras, which incidentally was the top-scorer, This has now happened on 24 occasions in ODIs. It is also the seventh such instance against Pakistan.
• Shahid Afridi (55 not out), equaled his previous record of an 18-ball fifty. He remains the only batsman to make two half-centuries in less than 20 balls faced. Simon O'Donnell of Australia also made his 50 off 18 deliveries. The world record however is still in the name of Sri Lankan master-blaster Sanath Jayasuriya who took 17 balls less to reach an ODI fifty.
• Imran Nazir made his eighth fifty in ODIs and his first against Holland.
• Afridi hit 6 sixes in his knock. This was the seventh occasion of him scoring six or more sixes in an ODI innings.
• The second of Afridi's sixes took him to a 150 ODI sixes. He becomes only the second batsman in ODIs to reach the landmark of 150 or more sixes. Only Jayasuriya with 166 is now ahead of him.
• For the third time in his ODI career, Afridi scored a half-century and picked up at least three wickets. The other two instances were against West Indies (53 & 3-33) at Sydney in 1997 and against England (61 & 5-40) at Lahore in 2000.
• Pakistan registered their 282nd win in ODIs and the second against the Dutch.
• Afridi won his 12th Man-of-the-Match award in his 164th ODI and his maiden such award against Holland.