Pakistan defeated New Zealand in Sydney by a resounding 7 wickets to go to the Men’s T20 World Cup final. In their opening stand of 105 runs, Pakistan’s Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan set the team up for an incredible victory as they chased down 153 to win.
At a charged SCG, Pakistan fans went berserk after Shan Masood scored the decisive runs with 5 balls remaining. Prior to that, Daryl Mitchell scored an undefeated fifty-four as New Zealand came back from 49-3 to post 152-4.
In the Sunday final in Melbourne, Pakistan will now take against either England or India, who face each other on Thursday. Following defeats to competitors India and afterwards Zimbabwe in its opening 2 games of the competition, Pakistan was on the verge of elimination.
They required South Africa’s shocking loss to the Netherlands to preserve their chances alive, but now they are only one game away from winning their second T20 World Cup.
Pakistan aspires to be like their class of 92
Pakistan had a terrible tournament debut, but they now appear to be on an almost unbreakable roll as they try to duplicate their glory from the 1992 50-over World Cup in Australia. They too had a disastrous beginning to that competition, dropping their first 3 group matches, but a remarkable turnaround, highlighted by a victory against New Zealand in the semifinals, saw them defeat England in the championship match.
As they soar on the crest of a wave propelled by their raucous, fervent supporters—who once congregated in large numbers—there appears to be a similar feeling of destiny at play here.
Babar and Rizwan, who have battled with consistency throughout season but eventually delivered when it counted, had a fantastic start with the bat as they completely destroyed New Zealand. When they reached 87-0 midway through the game, the Kiwi players appeared stunned. A furious opening assault had propelled them to 55-0 following the powerplay.
Babar later got out when he tried to hole out to Mitchell at long-on instead of hitting Boult for six, but his 53 runs from 42 balls were more than he had scored in his past 5 World Cup innings put together. Pakistan’s nerves briefly began to fray after two additional late wickets, such as that of Rizwan for 57 from 43 balls, but Masood helped them cross the finish line to secure a convincing victory.
Black Caps severely defeated
The opening over set the tone for the game when Finn Allen hit Shaheen Afridi’s first delivery for four before being thrown out lbw on the next delivery. Replays revealed a heavy inside edge, which Allen was able to successfully challenge. However, Shaheen’s subsequent devastating inswinger stranded him in front and enraged the already agitated crowd.
In contrary to Pakistan, New Zealand advanced to this stage in an unusually calm manner after their tournament started with a crushing victory against the hosts, Australia. However, they appeared completely perplexed in this situation, so they can hardly begrudged the outcome.
After the Black Caps slid to 49-3, Mitchell and Williamson tenaciously rebuilt the innings, but they only managed to hit five boundaries in their 68-run stand for the fourth wicket.
New Zealand’s 152-4 appeared to be a defendable total because the playing surface appeared to be slow and challenging to score from. However, Pakistan mocked that by destroying the seasoned Black Caps bowling pair of Boult and Southee during the powerplay to advance the run rate. Two lost catches by New Zealand, most notably Babar, who was put down by wicketkeeper Conway off the first ball of the game, summed up their lackluster performance.
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