The penultimate match of the 2021 T20 World Cup started off decently for Pakistan as their formidable opening duo Mohammed Rizwan and Babar Azam led the way through the powerplay. Both Azam and Rizwan looked comfortable at the crease. It was only after the duo notched 71 on the board that the partnership was broken by Zampa. Rizwan on the other end took the attack to the opposition and played at a healthy strike rate.
Pakistan cruised through the middle overs as not even the pace of Starc, the hard lengths of Hazlewood or the accuracy of Zampa seemed to bother the in-form Rizwan. Even the left-hander Fakhar Zaman, who has taken on the middle order role recently, started going after the Aussie bowlers. It looked as though Pakistan would easily get to 180 with the firepower they had in the bank. But Pat Cummins in the 19th over pulled things back magnificently, conceding just 3 and taking the crucial wicket of Asif Ali. But Fakhar Zaman continued on his merry way as he used the crease to wonderful effect in order to negate Mitch Starc’s yorkers. He hit Starc for two huge sixes over long on and widish long on in the final over to get Pakistan to 176/4, which looked impressive given the watchful start.
The Men in Green know a thing or two about getting off to excellent starts as Shaheen Shah Afridi yet again made early inroads in his very first over and dismissed skipper Aaron Finch with a beautiful in-swinger that hooped in late and trapped Finch in front. There was yet another shout for LBW against Marsh which was turned down. Marsh made full use of that reprieve. He drove and pulled the Pakistani pacers for boundaries. It was boundaries galore as David Warner was also striking the ball well. Australia had a great powerplay and scored 57 for the loss of just 2 wickets.
Warner was at his ferocious best and raced to 49 off just 30 balls before Shadab Khan’s tossed up leg-spinner sent him packing. Shadab was on fire as he had picked up Maxwell too, who reversed sweeped one straight to the sweeper at deep point. Shadab ended up with figures of 4/26. Australia were tattering at 103/5. The pair who won Aussies their first game of the WC against South Africa were now in the middle. Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade needed to get 72 off 42 to get Australia to a World Cup final.
After a couple of dry overs, the runs started to come thick and fast for Australia as Stoinis and Wade bashed the Pakistani pacers for 12+ runs every over. The pacer who had started off proceedings was bowling the 19th with 22 to defend. Wade pulled one to deep midwicket and was dropped by Hasan Ali. In a way Hasan Ali dropped the game as Australia’s keeper held his nerves and finished things off in the next 3 balls, tonking one over square leg, and scopping two sixes over fine-leg.
With that, Australia have made it to their second ever T20 WC final, and give themselves the chance of lifting the cup for the very first time. They take on New Zealand on Sunday. It will be a riveting encounter when the two sides go head-to-head with millions of eyes glued on them.
-Vibhor Dubey
The Average Cricketer 