Wade’s run of sixes smashes Australia into the final
Stoinis shares 81-run stand off 40 balls to snatch victory
Pakistan left to regret costly drop by Hasan in the 19th over
All around, there was silence. But for two Australians, there was the elixir of triumph. As Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis shared a jubilant embrace, they could revel in the most remarkable Twenty20 run chase in, well, all of 24 hours.
A day earlier, New Zealand had needed 57 from 24 balls against England, and got there with an over to spare. Now, Australia chased down the 50 they required from the final four overs against Pakistan, also with six balls left. It ended Pakistan’s extraordinary 16-game winning streak in T20s in the United Arab Emirates, dating back to 2016.
Wade and Stoinis, Australia’s last two specialist batsmen, added 81 in 40 balls for Australia’s sixth wicket. Wade sealed victory with three consecutive sixes, including two scoops of dazzling impudence off Shaheen Shah Afridi, the tournament’s outstanding pace bowler.
All that was left for Pakistan’s raucous fans to do was dwell on the ball before Wade’s sequence, when he was dropped by Hasan Ali at deep midwicket. Had Hasan completed a fairly routine catch, Australia would still have needed 20 from nine balls with only four wickets in hand.
This was a wildly oscillating game – a cocktail of fine batting, wonderful, varied bowling and fallibility, with both sides’ fielding betraying awareness of the stakes. Yet, for vast swathes of the game, the heroes all seemed to be Pakistani.
Mohammad Rizwan, who had spent the two previous nights in an intensive care unit before what was described as a remarkable recovery, underpinned Pakistan’s 176 for four with 67. Fakhar Zaman added power to thrash 55, including consecutive sixes off Mitchell Starc’s final over.
With the crowd bellowing his name, Shaheen produced another of his intoxicating overs in Australia’s reply. Aaron Finch doubtless knew exactly what to expect – a full delivery swinging back in from over the wicket at 90mph. He just could not do anything about it.
When David Warner threatened to play the game’s dominant hand, Shadab Khan wrestled the match back in Pakistan’s favour. Each of his four overs contained a wicket. The fourth, Glenn Maxwell, left Australia 96 for five.
It was for situations like this that Australia have plumped for their batter-heavy approach. The previous day, England suffered for picking a side favouring batting; now, Australia were saved by it.
Ostensibly, Wade’s selection at No 7 is a strange one: he has not batted so low in domestic cricket for five years. But while he is bestsuited to open in T20, seven is wellmatched for his penchant for attacking pace. Wade plundered 41 off 16 balls from Pakistan’s quicks; he did not score from his solitary ball against spin.
Rather than a final to relish, the disconsolate Pakistan supporters who traipsed out of Dubai International Stadium could only cling on to the glory of their journey. From the effervescence of their opening victory against India – commemorated by fans proudly sporting T-shirts reading “152-0”, Pakistan’s score as they completed that 10-wicket win – theirs has been a tournament of riotous fun.
But given how well-suited they are to conditions in the UAE – the team are altogether less wellequipped for the challenge in Australia – Pakistan’s pangs of regret will linger long.
A few minutes after Australia’s victory, their prospects in Sunday’s all-antipodean final received a significant boost. It emerged that New Zealand’s Devon Conway had broken his hand when he thrashed his bat against it after his dismissal against England.
And so, almost unfathomably given the mauling they suffered against England in the group stage, Australia are now the favourites to lift the T20 World Cup.