(REUTERS) – Pakistan’s skipper Shahid Afridi yesterday spared Pakistan’s blushes with an inspired spell of bowling as they beat Canada by 46 runs in their World Cup Group A match in Colombo. Pakistan, one of the tournament favourites, slumped to a well below-par 184 off 43 overs against the unfancied minnows who were 104-3 in their reply, before they were bowled out for 138 from 42.5 overs.
Afridi ripped through the middle order with 5-23, to become the first man to take at least four wickets in three consecutive World Cup matches, as Pakistan maintained their 100% record in this year’s tournament.
Winning the toss and taking first use of the pitch, Pakistan could not get their batting rhythm going and lost wickets at regular intervals.
They slumped to 67-4 before Misbah-ul-Haq (37) and top scorer Umar Akmal (48) posted the best partnership of the innings with 73 for the fifth wicket.
Once the stand was broken at 140, the rest of the Pakistan batting collapsed with the last five wickets tumbling for 19 runs, as they were unable to cope with the medium-pace and spin combination of Canada who had heavily lost their first two matches to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
Canada lost their opening bowler Khurram Chohan who failed to complete his fourth over but he was not missed as the rest of the bowlers bowled a tight line and length.
Medium-pacer Harvir Baidwan was the pick of the attack with 3 for 35 while Rizwan Cheema, Balaji Rao and Jimmy Hansra shared six wickets among them.
Canada, whose only World Cup victory was over Bangladesh in 2003, started well in their pursuit of a relatively modest target against a Pakistan attack missing the resting Shoaib Akhtar, with Zubin Surkari (27) and Jimmy Hansra (43) putting on 60 for the fourth wicket.
But Surkari’s dismissal to Saeed Ajmal in the 34th over prompted the Afridi-inspired collapse with Canada eventually being bowled out for 138 in 42.5 overs.

SCOREBOARD
PAKISTAN innings (maximum 50 overs)
M. Hafeez lbw b Osinde    11
A. Shehzad c Gordon b Baidwan    12
K. Akmal c Kumar b Cheema    16
Y. Khan lbw b Baidwan    6
Misbah-ul-Haq c wkp. Bagai b Rao    37
U. Akmal lbw b  Rao    48
S. Afridi c Kumar b Cheema    20
A. Razzaq lbw b Hansra    8
U. Gul not out    2
W. Riaz c Rao b Hansra    0
S. Ajmal b Baidwan    0
Extras: (b-4, lb-3, w-16, nb-1)    24
Total: (all out, 43 overs)    184
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-42, 3-55, 4-67, 5-140, 6-165, 7-181, 8-181, 9-181.
Bowling: Kurram Chohan 3.3-0-10-0 (nb-1), Osinde 7-1-25-1 (w-5), Gordon 0.3-0-1-0 (w-1), Baidwan 8-1-35-3 (w-2), Rizwan Cheema 8-0-33-2 (w-3), Balaji Rao 10-0-50-2 (w-1), Hansra 6-1-23-2.
CANADA (target: 185 off 50 overs)
R. Gunasekera lbw b Gul    8
N. Kumar b Razzaq    2
Z. Surkari lbw b Ajmal    27
A. Bagai lbw b Afridi    16
J. Hansra b Afridi    43
R. Cheema b Afridi    4
T. Gordon c Riaz b Afridi    9
H. Baidwan b Afridi    0
K. Chohan not out    5
B. Rao run-out    1
H. Osinde b Riaz    0
Extras: (lb-4, w-19)    23
Total: (all out, 42.5 overs)    138
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-16, 3-44, 4-104, 5-111, 6-114, 7-114, 8-130, 9-134.
Bowling: Abdul Razzaq 7-2-16-1 (w-1), Umar Gul 7-1-20-1 (w-4), Shahid Afridi 10-0-23-5 (w-3), Wahab Riaz 5.5-0-23-1 (w-2), Saeed Ajmal 8-0-31-1 (w-3), Mohammad Hafeez 5-0-21-0.
Result: Pakistan won by 46 runs
Points: Pakistan 2, Canada 0
Man-of-the-Match: Shahid Afridi (Pakistan)