Australia Got Pakistan Out Of Tournament To Enter Semi Final
20 March,Adelaide
Australia batted Pakistan out of the 11th edition of ICC World Cup to enter into the Final .
Australia will take on defending Champion India for the place in Final . Australia has never lost in World Cup semifinals ..
Chasing Pakistan’s low total of 214 , Australia achieved the target in 33.5 over . Australia made 216 as Watson hit a four off Sohail Khan’s good length delivery outside off stump. That was the last but one ball of the 34th over.
Now Australia lead 5-4 on head-to –head against Pakistan in World Cups.
Australia’s Josh Hazlewood who bagged four wickets to broke Pakistans Batting backbone was chosen as the ‘man of he match”.
Though Pakistan Bowlers trying to defend the low total ,could put Australia under pressure by taking three early wickets within 11 overs , the Kangaroos batted steady to achieve the goal. Shane Watson 64 off 66 balls and Glenn Maxwell 44 off 29 balls remained not out.
Steven Smith scored 65 while David Warner made 24 runs.
Wahab Riaz removed David Warner and Michael Clarke in his consecutive overs to hold Australia.
Wahab Riaz took two wickets while Sohail Khan and Ehsan Adil took one wicket each.
Earlier a rumbling Pakistan was halted by some fine bowling by the Aussies.
In a crunch game the well-oiled Australian bowling unit landed crucial blows at regular intervals to bundle out the opposition for a below par total of 213.
In fact, it could be said that the poor shot selection by most of Pakistan’s batsmen played a part in their demise.
Some batting revival efforts were shown by Misbah Ul Haq and Haris Sohail as they stitched 73 runs for the 3rd wicket, besides that none of the partnership developed to threaten Aussie bowlers.
At a point veteran Shahid Afridi, whom this match could be the last of his career handed lusty blows but again failed to make it big.
Josh Hazlewood in for Pat Cummins proved out to be good choice as he took 4 wickets. Though Pakistan is famous for defending low totals but without the service of Mohammed Irfan it looks a tough task to achieve.