The 2nd semi-final of the 2010 T20 World Cup is tomorrow. Pakistan will be playing Australia; the team that smacked Pakistan all this year in every single format of the game. Yet for some strange reason i believe Pakistan is going to win. Australia has won every single match in this tournament, but so did South Africa last year and Pakistan sent them running back home in the semi-finals. This is indeed a very hard match to predict as Australia is the only team that dominates Pakistan even when Pakistan is in form. But you can't leave the Pakistani side out of the picture, If the mood is right the green shirts could dominate the field. If Pakistan wins, they are going to face their 1992 world cup opponents who ironically are the only reason Pakistan are in the tournament. Pakistan would've been out if England hadn't beat New Zealand earlier. Which is also more weird as England did the same thing for Pakistan in the 1992 world cup and then later faced them in the final ( our first world cup :D ). Strictly by statistics Australia has everything on it's side but you never know; the green shirts can strike any time!
[Image: © AFP]
Pakistan made it to the semifinal!! After all hope was lost for the Pakistani cricket team when they lost the key match against New Zealand (by one run), they miraculously managed to get to the semi-finals. They overcame South Africa with the captain Shahid Afridi finally coming into form (30 runs off of 18 Balls), as well as Saeed Ajmal (4 wickets) and the Akmal brothers (Kamran and Umar made 37 and 51 respectfully) finally making their presence felt in this year's tournament. That wasn't all though; Their win would have been useless if England had not beaten New Zealand later on. If New Zealand had won, then Pakistan would have been taking the next flight home. It was nothing short of a miracle that Pakistan has everything going it's way. It's a blessing from a higher power that got the green shirts through. Being unpredictable, Pakistan's chances in the semis can't be determined but their performance throughout this year's tournament has been disappointing (winning 2 out of 5 matches). But as one can see, skill is not the only thing that is needed in cricket ;) God bless the Pakistani cricket team and God bless Pakistan. I wish them the best in the semis. =)
[Image: © AFP]
In the beginning of the tournament, making it to the semi-finals even seemed impossible for Pakistan. Losing both warm-up matches to India and South Africa, the journey ahead did not look bright for Pakistan. We lost our first match against England by 48 runs. Our losses were unexplainable. We had the best team on paper and yet our performances were shitty as hell. We didn't know what was wrong, all we knew was that we had to fix it. Next game we bounced back as we went against Netherlands [who has previously beaten England] and defeated them by a massive 82 runs! Although Netherlands is not much of a competition, our win was necessary or else we would've gotten kicked out the tournament. Then we faced Sri Lanka and lost to them by 19 runs. It seemed like whenever we faced a good team, we would find ourselves struggling. That started changing when Abdul Razzaq joined the squad after quitting the ICL. That did the magic and Pakistan defeated New Zealand who had only lost one match in the tournament so far [to undefeated South Africa and only by one run]. Pakistan came back to it's normal stage of being an unpredictable team who can suprise the world and even themselves when it comes to gametime! After the win, Pakistan sailed through Ireland and into the semis while Umar Gul takes 5 wickets in one match [a first in twenty20] and sets a world record. But the biggest match was yesterday. South Africa going through the whole tournament without even losing a single match would've scared any other team but not Pakistan! Pakistan did the impossible and added yet another upset to the list by being the first team to defeat South Africa in the whole tournament and making it to the World Cup Twenty20 Final. The win wasen't easy but with some brilliant batting from the whole team [Shahid Afridi Shined with 51 runs] and great bowling by Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal, the win had to belong to Pakistan. Today's semi-final between Sri Lanka and West Indies will decide who we will face in the Final, but i say that doesn't matter. As long as we play well and put up a fight, we are sure to win!
Pakistan has just stunned the world by beating the "unbeatable" South Africa and will be going to the Twenty20 World Cup Finals!
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© Getty ImagesJust when i thought Pakistan had barely any chance of winning the Twenty20 World Cup they end up beating one of the best teams in the tournament; New Zealand. New Zealand only lost one match and that was to South Africa (The only team in the tournament that is undefeated) and by only one run. Pakistan returns to it's normal stage of being unpredictable. We can pull off the greatest upsets and yet lose to the crappiest teams [We got knocked out the world cup by Ireland back in 2007]. Anyway the stats for Pakistan in the game were awesome. Umar Gul took 5 wickets [yes 5!] which is the first in Twenty2o and also only gave away 6 runs in the 3 overs he bowled [which is damn good!]. Rebel Adbul Razzaq makes a great debut back in the international stage [after leaving ICL] by taking NZ's most important wickets and bowling a maiden [rare in Twenty20]. Newcomer Shahzaib Hasan made 35 runs in 28 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes [great for a new guy]. And last but not least, Shahid Afridi suprises the world with his batting by scoring 29 runs in only 18 balls and he remained not out, he also did very good in bowling by taking 1 wicket and only gave 17 runs in 4 overs. If Pakistan continues to give power-packed performances like this, than we just might win the damn tournament!
Even though we made it to the finals in the last twenty20 world cup and our team looks quite solid on paper, our performances in the recent warm-up matches weren't a pretty sight. We lost to both South Africa and India and I still can't figure out what's wrong! I mean we have a pretty good squad that gets along great but we just can't put it together. Everything is perfect; we have a good head coach, a good administration, good players that came from the domestic competition, some really good returning players, but when it comes to game time everything crumbles [talking about 20/20]. In the recent match with India, we lost by 9 wickets! Maybe i'm just mad about that or maybe someone has to take action. Anyway, all the best to our team and Inshallah they will put things together and win...
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