Not many teams would have fancied the chances of defending low totals after getting out for totals below 200. But, the mercurial Pak all-rounder, mixed up his googlies, turning a certain defeat into victory, in yesterday's World Cup league match played against Canada at Colombo.

Chasing a modest target of 184, Canada had scrapped hard to reach 104 for 3 at the end of 33rd over but Afridi's Self-introduction at this juncture stemmed the further progress of Canada by claiming the scalp of Jimmy Hansra for 43. Subsequently, the lower order was caved in for a score of 138 runs to hand over a 46-run victory to Pakistan.

Shahid Afridi, for the second successive time bagged his second 5-wicket haul in the ongoing World Cup, taking his wicket tally to 14 in 3 matches. Abdul Razzaq, Wahab Rahiz, Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal contented themselves with one wicket each.

Earlier Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. However, Pakistan did not have a great start what it aspired for. The opening duo of Ahmed Shehzad and Mohd Hafeez failed yet again as both fell for respective scores of 11 and 12.

Though the consistent performers of Pak's Miban-Ul-Haq and Umar Akmal added 73-runs for the 5th wicket, eventually the Pakistan team was skittled out for 184 runs in 43 runs. Misban fell for 37 while the young talented Umar Akmal was two runs short of his 50. Pakistan Skipper Shahid Afridi slogged in the end to get a quick 20 in 17 balls.

Canada's bowlers, specifically, swing bowler Harvir Baidwan bowled heart out taking 3 wickets for 35 runs in 8 overs. He was supported well by medium pacer Rizwan Cheema, spinnersBalaji Rao and Hansra who reined in the experienced Pak batsmen claiming two wickets apiece.

Shahid Afridi was adjudged Man-of-the-Match for his superb display with the ball.

Pakistan next meets New Zealand at Kandy on 8th March while the disappointed Canadian team will be playing the BlackCaps at Mumbai on March 13.