Home ›› 11 Nov 2021 ›› Sport
Unpredictable Pakistan will face cutthroat Australia in the second semifinal of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 today at Dubai International Stadium today to grab a spot in the final.
The trophy of the T20 World Cup is the only missing item in Cricket Australia’s trophy cabinet, while Pakistan won the title of the second edition in 2009 after losing the final of the inaugural edition in 2007 to archrivals India.
Australia’s best performance in this tournament is being runners-up in 2010 when they lost to England in the final of the 2010 edition.
In that tournament, Pakistan put a tough resistance ahead of Australia in the semifinal, but an explosive inning by Mike Hussey rescued the Aussies.
Pakistan is cruising in this tournament where they have beaten India in their opening game which is their first victory over the archrivals in any World Cup.
Babar Azam’s team have won all the five matches so far in this tournament, they are the only unbeaten team, and their batsmen are enjoying tremendous form.
Skipper Babar is the highest run-getter of the tournament with 264 runs, his opening partner Mohammad Rizwan has also surpassed 200 runs mark.
But their biggest weapon is Asif Ali, the explosive batsman with a menacing strike rate of 247.82, who hit seven sixes so far and voted as the player of the month for October on Tuesday.
Pakistan started their T20 World Cup campaign in Dubai, where they beat India by 10 wickets, and they will be coming with all guns blazing today against Australia to achieve a similar kind of result.
Pakistan have former Australian batsman Mathew Hayden as their batting consultant, and before the match, he said that it will be ‘a challenge of heart’ for him,
“It is a very unusual feeling. As you all know, I was a warrior for Australian cricket for over two decades, I guess from my point of view there is the challenge of the heart, the challenge of the mind in terms of what’s going to happen over the next 24 hours,” said the former left-hander opener.
Australian captain Aaron Finch is not a big believer in history as he the head-to-head count stands in favour of Pakistan,
“I think that obviously, Pakistan have been in really good form. They’re 5-0 in this tournament. They’ve played some really good cricket throughout. I don’t think you can read too much into history. Honestly, they’re two different teams to what has been played in the past, so you don’t look too deeply into that,” he said in the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
Australia tick all the boxes with leg-spinner Adam Zampa and their pace-trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchel Stark and Josh Hazelwood.
The only worrying issue was David Warner’s struggling form in the latter part of the Indian Premier League, which the batsman has recovered since the start of the World Cup,
“I was never worried one bit about Dave’s form. He’s one of the all-time great batsmen of our era. I think you can look at it as though he had a really lean IPL and then the start of this tournament, but the two halves of the IPL were a long way apart, so if you miss out a couple of times at the end of the first part, which was in India, and then the first couple of games in Dubai, it looks as though a run of form is a pattern there, but I certainly wasn’t worried. He’s all class; he’s trained hard; he’s mentally fresh; he’s ready to go”, said Finch.
“It’s great to see the best of him fit and firing. As we all know, it’s a great sight when he’s up and about and scoring runs for Australia,” he added.
Both sides are evenly poised and armed to the teeth; Pakistan knows the conditions very well as they play a lot of matches in the UAE, while Australia have gained momentum after some early struggles in this tournament.
In the knock-out stage, Australians are deadly as a viper, but Pakistan has embraced the unpredictability of T20 so well that they have become one of the most successful teams in this format.
The fate of the semifinal hangs on a knife’s edge where the unpredictable will meet the professionals where anything can happen.
