SYDNEY: Pakistan defeated New Zealand by seven wickets on Wednesday at the Sydney Cricket Ground, continuing their wild ride at the T20 World Cup into the final. Opening batsman Mohammad Rizwan acknowledged that his team never gave up.
Pakistan recovered to defeat the Netherlands and South Africa after suffering heartbreaking last-ball losses to India and Zimbabwe in the group round.
When Pakistan defeated Bangladesh with ease and the Proteas were shocked by the Dutch, they unexpectedly advanced to the final four.
The winner of Thursday’s semifinal between India and England will face Pakistan in Adelaide, who last won the championship in 2009 at Lord’s in England when they defeated Sri Lanka by eight wickets. At Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, the championship game will be contested.
Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam stated, “It means a lot [to make the final]. We did not perform well in the opening rounds of the tournament, but once South Africa lost, we seized the chance and are now in the championship game.
The 2009 champions, who lost the toss but nevertheless exuded confidence from the time Shaheen Shah Afridi grabbed the ball for the opening over, were riding a wave of adrenaline from their outstanding escape from the group stage.
They used disciplined bowling and razor-sharp defence to hold New Zealand to just 152-4 before Rizwan (57) and Babar (53) finally found their scoring touch and destroyed the renowned bowling attack of the Black Caps in a titanic opening stand.
In front of 36,443 fans who were overwhelmingly in favour of Pakistan, Babar and Rizwan made up for the fact that they had fallen short of their enormous expectations during the group stage.
Babar stated, “I thank the people. Feels like we’re having a game night at home. We will have pleasure in this time. Thought should also be given to the outcome.
Rizwan, who was shy away from confrontation and awarded player of the game, said: “Obviously, me and Babar opted to go after the new ball and the field was challenging. “One of the guys started the conversation when we concluded the powerplay.
“Fortunately, the 50th point came in the semifinal. Although we didn’t have a strong tournament start, the lads put in a lot of effort, and we never lost hope.
New Zealand, who won Group 1, was hoping to get to the final for the second time in a row, but their quest for a first T20 championship was again unsuccessful.
“Credit to Pakistan, they were too brilliant today,” remarked skipper Kane Williamson after watching his team waste a number of catchable opportunities in a shoddy fielding performance. Early pressure was applied on us. Pakistan’s bowlers did a great job. With a fantastic knock from [Daryl] Mitchell, we managed to regain the initiative.
“At the midway point, we thought we had something to defend there, but Pakistan’s batting was fantastic, and they took that down with ease. For those runs, we most definitely wanted to put them through more effort. It’s a bitter medicine to take. If we’re being completely honest, I believe we wished to exercise greater discipline in our respective domains. Pakistan deserved to win, as I already stated.