Sydney: Fifties by openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan helped Pakistan make their first T20 World Cup final in 13 years after they defeated New Zealand in the first semifinals of the ongoing T20 World Cup at the SCG here on Wednesday.
It is just incredible everything is happening for Pakistan at the right time when they had almost packed their kits to fly back home, but the Netherland win against South Africa refurbished the hopes of Matthew Hayden's lads.
Babar and Rizwan rose to the occasion and stitched a 105 runs partnership for the first wicket in 76 balls, but not before the Pakistan captain was dropped when he had not opened his account.
Pakistan's bowling was brilliant again to restrict New Zealand to 152/4, and then chased down the target with five balls to spare on a pitch that was akin to sub-continental tracks, which made their job easy.
The openers got Pakistan off to a firing start and rankled the nerves of New Zealand bowlers who were off-colour today. Rizwan hammered 57 off 43 balls with five boundaries and Babar hit 53 off 42 balls with seven boundaries.
Trent Boult (33/2) and Tim Southee (24/0 in 3.1 overs) went for far too many runs. Only the second time since the start of 2021 WC Southee has gone wicketless in a T20I. The other instance came against Australia in the final last year.
The Kiwi fielding too was a bit sloppy in contrast to Pakistan's. They missed three catches and a couple of run-outs tonight which aggravated matters against them.It was then left to Mohammad Haris to take Pakistan to the finals by scoring 30 off 26 balls with two boundaries and a six.
Earlier, Daryl Mitchell's unbeaten 53 from 35 balls helped New Zealand to recover from early jolts and reach a total of 152/4.Pakistan put up a brilliant show to restrict New Zealand. They were nimble-footed, throwing themselves to the ground to save runs, except one run-out miss.
Left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi got Pakistan to a great start by removing the out-of-the form Finn Allen cheaply for 4 in the very first over of the match.
Shadab Khan's direct-hit sent back Devon Conway (21 off 20, 3x4s) run out, but Ken Williamson picked up the gauntlet and decided to bat through, milking Pakistani bowlers to keep the scorecard ticking.
Glenn Phillips failed by scoring just six, but Daryl Mitchell did succeed yet again in a T20 World Cup semifinal. He joined the elite list of batsmen who scored half centuries twice in the T20 World Cup semifinals. Earlier, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli had achieved this milestone.
Gayle had scored 63 not versus Sri Lanka at the Oval in 2009 and 75 not out against Australia in Colombo in 2012, while Kohli scored 72 not out against South Africa in 2014 in Mirpur and 89 not out against West Indies at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium in 2016.
Mitchell had scored his first half-ton of 72 not out against England in Abu Dhabi last year.
Williamson departed for 46 from 42 deliveries just when their innings entered the death overs, but Mitchell carried on and helped New Zealand cross 150.
It didn't look good for New Zealand at the end of 10 overs, but they regrouped at drinks break and smacked 28 runs off the next 13 balls to lift themselves.They nudged the ball in gaps and got twos at will to ensure there was no slowing down despite not many boundaries.Afridi (2/24) was the pick of the bowlers, but others were disciplined too.(UNI)
