Another high-octane semifinal has produced yet another heist with a flurry of boundaries at the death, and Australia are set to face New Zealand in what will be a cracker of a championship final.
Australia won the toss and opted to bowl on a surface that would increasingly help the batters as the game went on. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan started off carefully, building a sturdy 71-run stand in the first half of the innings. However, the quest to up the run rate got the better of the skipper.
Fortunately, Rizwan finally found his range against Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood, and reached another fantastic half-century. Just when he and Fakhar Zaman were beginning to accelerate, Mitchell Starc struck to remove Rizwan at a key juncture. A tight penultimate over from Cummins seemed to stifle Pakistan, but two sixes from Fakhar in the final over catapulted his side to 176/5 at the close.
Australia were under the pump early on, when a red-hot first over from Shaheen Afridi sent Aaron Finch back on his first ball. They had to stay in sync with the asking rate, and David Warner and Mitchell Marsh regularly punctuated the Powerplay phase with boundaries.
The introduction of Shadab Khan’s leg-spin was the game changer for Pakistan, as both the set batters fell. In addition, he claimed the very crucial wickets of Steve Smith and the ever-so-dangerous Glenn Maxwell cheaply.
Australia’s seven-batter strategy made the difference, as Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade battled hard to keep them in contention. They calmly kept the score ticking along, but they needed 50 from the final 4 overs.
A six and a four from Stoinis injected much-needed momentum, and Wade joined the fun in the very next over from Hasan Ali. However, the climactic moment came in the 19th over, which was given to Shaheen, the trusty strike bowler.
Hasan Ali shelled a catch on the third delivery, and Wade added insult to injury when he scooped Shaheen over fine leg for an effortless maximum. Australia still needed 12 from 8, but Wade was very much in the mood to polish it off.
Wade muscled a half-volley over deep midwicket and that all but ensured that Australia had it. He repeated the same paddle-scoop on the final delivery to defy the odds, flip the script, and score a win against a team that was dominating the round-robin phase.
It’s been a thrilling couple of days for cricket fanatics all around the world, and be sure to catch the action on Sunday!
PAK 176/4 (Rizwan 67, Fakhar 55* – Starc 4-0-38-2)
AUS 177/5 in 19 overs (Warner 49, Wade 41, Stoinis 40 – Shadab Khan 4-0-26-4)
PHOTO: EPA/DAVID GRAY
