By Shenol.M.Wilson
It was an another beautiful day on Sydney as destiny was on stake for both Pakistan and New Zealand. Going on to the match New Zealand were absolute favourites being the table toppers on group A by only losing to England. Pakistan had a funny but interesting story on the other side as they were only able to win 3 matches out of 5 coming into the semis.
Going on to the start, New Zealand Captain cool Kane Williamson won the toss and decided to bat first inorder to get the maximum out of the conditions.SCG was a bat first and win ground so far in most of the matches played in this World cup and it was always a plus for the Kiwis.
Unfortunately the New Zealand openers were not able to stand there for so long as ever reliable Shaheen Afridi showed Finn Allen the way back to the pavilion as he was dismissed for 4 runs. His partner Conway and Captain Williamson were able to build up some sort of a partnership before Conway was run out for 21 with a magnificent fielding effort by Shadab Khan.
Daryl Mitchell was the highest scorer for Kiwis as he was able to get a score of 53 from just 35 balls by maintain an excellent strike rate of 151.Kane Williamson did his duty as usual before he was dismissed for 46 runs. Shaheen Afridi was the highest wicket taker for Pakistan as he produced a brilliant bowling spell of 2 for 24. Wonderful fielding effort by the Pakistani players were a highlight in the inning as it was able to save lots of runs for them. New Zealand ended up at 152 at the end of their 20 overs by loosing just 4 wickets.
Discussing about the second inning, it was a perfect score to chase for the Babar-Rizwan combo who are sometimes bit slow at the start. It was definitely there day as Babar Azam was dropped by Conway in the first ball he faced. They were able to build up hundred runs partnership thereafter by making the chase so easy to go on with.
Mohammad Rizwan was able to get a brilliant score of 57 as his captain and partner Babar Azam was able to get back into the form after a while with 53 runs. Trent Boult bowled his heart out as always as he was able to get 2 wickets for 33 runs while completing his spell. After the dismissal of Babar and Rizwan, youngster Mohamad Haris completed the ending of the chase with quick 30 runs from just 26 balls.
Finally, this wonderful win from Pakistan team who were down and out after their first two league stage matches have shown us the way to realize everything is possible if you believe in yourself. They will meet the winner of the second semifinal tomorrow which will be played between England and India. If Pakistan are going to be the winners on Sunday, it will surely be one heck of a tournament with all the ups and downs we had so far. However, it won’t be that easy with their arch rivals India or the English men on a roll who will try to get their hands into the trophy.
