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A wonderful knock of 41 runs from just 17 deliveries by Mathew Wade took Australia to the final of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 where they will face their trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand on Sunday.
Pakistan batted first and scored 176-4 in 20 overs, in reply Australia were 177-5 in 19 overs, won the match by five wickets.
Mohammad Rizwan rode on his luck and played a knock of 67 runs from 52 balls while Fakhar Zaman also used his share of fortune to score 55* runs from 32 balls.
Rizwan was dropped by David Warner when the wicket-keeper batsman was yet to open his account in this match.
Warner ran back from mid-off to the boundary lines and almost made it a stunning catch but the ball slipped off his palms and crossed the line giving Rizwan his first scoring shot.
Rizwan survived another sharp chance missed by Adam Zampa and finally scored 67 runs from 52 balls where he hit three boundaries and four sixes.
Asif Ali came to play his first match after being ornamented as the ICC Player of the month for October but ended up getting caught by Steven Smith and earned a golden duck. Steven Smith dropped Fakhar Zaman in the next ball when he was on 40 runs
On the chase, Australia lost Finch on the third ball of their innings for a duck.
Shaheen Shah Afridi has a habit of picking wicket in his first over and which he did over 20 times in international cricket and did the same one more time against Australia.
Mitchel Marsh and David Warned tried to salvage with a 50-run partnership but Marsh tried a slog sweep against Shadab khan and get caught by Asif Ali in the deep square.
That opened the floodgates, Steven Smith (5) was the next to go and Warner also gave a catch to Rizwan behind the stumps when he was just one run short of a half-century, though the reply suggested that there was no contact between the bat and the ball.
It all came down to Marcus Stoinis (40*) and Mathew Wade who batted through the death overs brilliantly and managed to take Australia home with six balls to spare.
The 17th and 18th overs of the match were very productive for Australia as they managed 28 runs from those two overs but it was Wade who hit three sixes against Shaheen Shah Afridi in the last three balls of the 19th over to finish the game in Australia’s favor.
Wade’s innings of 41 runs consist of four sixes and two fours, but he was also lucky as Hasan Ali dropped him before he hit three consecutive sixes to finish the game.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam also pointed out that the drop was very costly, “The way we started in the first half, we got the total we targeted. But we gave them too much of a chance at the end of the chase. If we had taken that catch, it might have made the difference” he said in the presentation ceremony.
“It was a great game of cricket. The way Matthew Wade held his nerve was outstanding, that partnership with Marcus Stoinis was crucial”, Finch said after the match.
