Australia beat Pakistan by wickets and with an over to spare to set up a Trans-Tasman final against New Zealand in the T20 World Cup.
Pakistan were put into bat first by Australia with Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan playing steadily in the powerplay losing no wicket. Adam Zampa then provided the first breakthrough getting rid of Babar Azam with score 71 in 10 overs.
Soon after that Fakhar Zaman and Rizwan took the charge and went after Australia’s bowling with Rizwan, who was sick before the game scoring 67 of 52 balls. Fakhar Zaman then finished with a flourish hitting 4 sixes to score 52 of 32 balls, with Pakistan scoring 176/4 in 20 overs.
Australia were jolted early on when Shaheen Afridi trapped Aaron Finch, leaving them reeling at 1/1. David Warner however didn’t flinch and continued to attack the Pakistani bowlers. Mitchel Marsh and Warner took the game out of their hands with explosive hitting.
It was Shadab Khan who brought Pakistan back into the game, getting rid of dangerous Warner and then Maxwell in quick succession to leave them at 96/5 in 12.2 overs.
But then Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade ran through rest of Pakistan bowling first targeting Hasan Ali and then Haris Rauf to bring the equation to 12 runs per over with 4 overs to go.
With 22 needed of 2 overs Shaheen Afridi almost brought Pakistan back into the game but Hasan Ali couldn’t hold on to dismiss Matthew Wade, that proved costly and decisive as Wade would go on to smash Afridi for 3 consecutive sixes to end the match with a blast and bring Australia closer to a first T20 World Cup crown.
This win now means Australia have never lost to Pakistan in an ICC Knockout match and with it a rematch of 2015 World Cup final against New Zealand is set for November 14 in Dubai.
