A rejuvenated Pakistan have made their place in the ICC T20 World Cup final after demolishing New Zealand by seven wickets on Wednesday at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Though they struggled a bit in the league stage, the Babar Azam-led side dominated the Kiwis in every aspect of the game.
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After the remarkable victory, Pakistan legends Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shahid Afridi showered immense praise on the side. The former cricketers were quite concerned about Pakistan’s recent performances. But, the Men in Green announced themselves again as one of the top contenders for the prestigious trophy.
While featuring on a sports show on A Sports, Younis lauded the cricketers and predicted that the unit would bring their second T20 World Cup title home on 13 November when the final is slated to be played. “There were a lot of talks, a lot of criticisms, but you guys proved everyone wrong,” the former ODI World Cup winner stated.
Younis revealed that the bowling unit was responsible for the famous win. “The slower delivery of a quick bowler turns into an extremely lethal weapon when there is a reverse swing on offer. And today, it was amazing to see how the bowlers exploited that slower one and read the pitch. The plans were pretty effectively carried out,” he explained.
Read: Pakistan turn the clock year back to stun New Zealand in semi-final
Younis’ teammate Akram echoed his views. After Pakistan’s triumph, the bowling icon wasted no time tagging Pakistan as “one of the top sides in the world to qualify for the semi-finals” and congratulated the players for reaching the World Cup semis for the sixth time. He also referred to the previous statistics and said that Pakistan was in no position to lose. Akram also thought the tri-series final against New Zealand ahead of the World Cup worked as a huge confidence boost for them.
“Overall, if we compare our victory to the World Cup of ’92, we can say that our team was certain we could beat New Zealand. When you face New Zealand, a psychological sense of self-confidence sets in. Recently, we defeated them to win the tri-series. If we look at the World Cup (T20), Pakistan won four and New Zealand won two of the six games. Pakistan has won every semi-final match in the World Cups (T20 and ODIs),” Akram noted.
Another Pakistan great Afridi applauded the commendable fielding efforts of Pakistan players in the semi-final. They unquestionably made things easier for the bowlers. While speaking on Samaa TV, the 2009 T20 World Cup winner asserted, “We were better than New Zealand as we overshadowed them in every department.” Pacer Shaheen Afridi also earned plaudits for building pressure with the new ball. The former cricketer said, “Following his injuries, Shaheen (Afridi) made a tremendous comeback. The benefit of the new ball is that it increases pressure on the opposition when wickets are taken early.”
Read: Babar Azam hits back at critics after Pakistan reach final
According to him, the dropped opportunity of Azam in the very first over of the chase became the turning point. The Pakistan captain went on to score 53 runs off 42 deliveries. During the match, Kane Williamson’s unit missed as many as three catches which resulted in their defeat, as per Afridi.
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