Matthew Wade derailed Pakistan’s fortunes

Remember that Pakistan fan who said, “Ekdam inhone waqt badal diya, jazbaat badal diye, zindagi badal di”? He must be having the same kind of thoughts on last night’s encounter between Pakistan and Australia. Pakistan was totally in-charge of the match and was the favorites to win it for majority of the match but then what Matthew Wade did, changed everything for the men in green.

Pakistan’s journey started with a brilliant spell from Shaheen Afridi and ended on a 22-run penultimate over in the crucial semi-final. It was not at all easy for Australia from that stage and everyone expected that Afridi will bowl a gun over but credit goes to Matthew wade, who completely bamboozled everyone with his power hitting. However, things could have been slightly different if Hasan Ali would have caught Wade’s catch in the same over. After getting a second lifeline, Wade completely went after Afridi and finished the match with six balls in hand.

Pakistan wasn't bad at all. Mohammed Rizwan , who was in ICU for two nights came out to bat and made 67 runs from 52 balls while Fakhar Zaman, who was completely out of form in the Super12 scored 55 of 32 balls. With these important contributions, Pakistan made 176 runs and in a high stakes game, this is a very good total. Australia was on the back foot right from the start. Afridi dismissed Australian captain, Aaron Finch for 0 right in the first over. After that, David Warner and Mitch Marsh tried to make a comeback but Shadab Khan dismissed both these batsmen and also Steven Smith and Glenn Maxwell. So, of course Australia was on the back foot but Marcus Stoinis and Wade did the unthinkable. Australia won the match comfortably in the end and will now face New Zealand in the finals of the T20 World Series.

The luck didn’t favour Pakistan. They are a very good team and have the potential to win big trophies in the future. Mohammed Rizwan, Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman are three pillars of this side. If they manage to keep the core group alive, expect them to do big things in the future. However, for that, people need to give them enough chances to prove their caliber. This is something that the other nations are not doing well.