For 2022, read 1992: Pakistan leap into final
For Pakistan’s longsuffering supporters the similarities have been too tempting to ignore. By slipping into the knockout stage of the T20 World Cup through the back door, having been all but eliminated after two early defeats, it reminded those long enough in the tooth of 1992, and the World Cup victory of Imran Khan’s cornered tigers.
If the omens were good, then the dream lives on after New Zealand were swept aside in the first semifinal in Sydney.
Carried along on a wave of renewed belief and emotion, fuelled by a raucous full house at an SCG that was as green in colour as a crowd would be in Karachi or Lahore, Pakistan looked a side transformed.
Imran, the only Pakistan captain to win the 50-over World Cup, had sent a public message of support just as the match began. The former prime minister, who was shot in an assassination attempt last week in Wazirabad, northern Pakistan, tweeted a good-luck message and asked only that Babar Azam’s troops fought from first ball to last. He would have been thrilled with the response.
Whether Babar gets his moment in Melbourne on Sunday remains to be seen, but more evidence that the fates are with him came from the first ball he faced, his first of Pakistan’s reply to New Zealand’s modest 152-4.
Babar must have feared his poor run of form would continue when he edged Trent Boult, only to see the part-time wicketkeeper, Devon Conway, spill the chance. Babar did not give a second opportunity until the match was as good as over.
For so long Pakistan have been powered by the opening partnership between Babar and Mohammad Rizwan but, before this match, neither had delivered. They chose the right moment to come good, running New Zealand ragged, and playing their spinners – on a slow, dry and holding surface – with consummate skill.
They registered their third three-figure partnership in a T20 World Cup – a record – and they never let New Zealand’s bowlers settle.
The powerplay brought 55 runs and they played the spinners brilliantly off the pitch thereafter. By the time Babar holed out to long on off Boult in the 13th over, having made 53, Pakistan were on course to glide home under minimal pressure, and the talented and fearless Mohammad Haris showed again what a boost his belated selection has been.
The nerveless ease with which the total was chased was nothing more than Pakistan’s bowlers deserved after a superlative display in the field.
It was reverse-swing and skilful bowling that carried the day in Melbourne three decades ago, when Pakistan defeated England in the 50-over final, and it has been the bowling, principally, that has propelled Pakistan to the showpiece this time. After surrendering a score of 160 to India, no team since have scored more than that against them.
Pakistan’s bowlers were in their element, swinging the new ball and reverseswinging the old as early
as the 13th over. After a slow start to the tournament, taking time to get back into the swing of things after injury, the beguiling left-arm fast bowler, Shaheen Shah Afridi, has begun to blossom again, taking key wickets of Finn Allen and Kane Williamson with new ball and old.
Wickets topped and tailed the powerplay. Conway was run out from a direct hit by Shadab Khan at mid-on – Pakistan’s fielding, usually a barometer of their wellbeing, was sharp throughout – off the last ball of the sixth over and when Glenn Phillips chipped a return catch to the left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz two overs later, New Zealand had lost their most in-form and dangerous batsman.
It needed Williamson to tie things together, which he did in his usual compact style, but he started slowly and acceleration and boundaries were hard to come by.
Williamson clubbed the first six of the innings in the 13th over, but the slowness of the pitch countered any aggressive intent. Even big-hitting Daryl Mitchell struggled to clear the ropes, although his half-century, in 32 balls, was a vital contribution.
For once, the Kiwis looked flustered, dropping three catches in the field, while Pakistan played a near-perfect game. Babar’s cornered tigers march on to Melbourne.