Hello and a warm welcome to all our readers
, ICC T20 Cricket World Cup has come into the last round but it has been a fairy tale for the teams which were hot favorites but after all, cricket is just cricket and it haunts you out of nowhere and we have seen it again and again.
Let's talk in details
1st Semifinal
New Zealand Vs England
England was one of the most favorite teams in the tournament and is the no.1 T 20 side but cricket has its own ups and downs and sometimes the best teams can find it difficult to get through. Before the match they lost Jason Roy due to injury and most importantly Tymal Mills the expert death bowler was also not available due to injury and that's put a lot of pressure on them because they were forced to make a change.
please read also Top 5 cricket new of 2nd week of WC2021
Luck with the Coin
Toss has been one of the most critical factors in this tournament and Kane Williamson won an important toss and put England to bat which was really uncomfortable for them because they like to chase. But as they you can't control the toss and it can go either way.
England's Approach with the bat.
England has been pretty brutal with the bat and they start right from the ball one to attack and so on but somehow they couldn't do it on the bigger stage. Buttler and Bairstow started the innings but not in typical English Fashion as they struggled to get going. Bairstow went earlier and then Butter got out after the powerplay. After that Moeen and Malan joined the party and put a good partnership but the innings from Moeen Ali has backfired England because he played till the end and finished the innings with 37 balls 52 with a strike rate of 137 which you don't expect from English batter and England finished on 165 and it was looking like they were at least 20 runs short. There was a big mistake that Morgan didn't come himself instead of Moeen.
New Zealand's Calculated approach
New Zealand lost 2 experienced batters Guptill and Williamson when the score was just 13. After that Convey and Mitchell built a nice partnership and put New Zealand back on track. England lost one more trick there as Morgan didn't give the ball to Moeen which was the informed bowler in the powerplay with the new ball.
Liam Livingstone bowled really well with 2-26 and at one moment New Zealand required 57 from 24 balls and then Neesham against the best death bowler of England smashed him 23 runs and suddenly Kiwis were on the driving seat. Jordan was the only specialist death bowler when he went for the journey then there was no 2nd option for Morgan and Daryl Mitchell set batter smoked Woakes for 20 runs in 19th over to seal the deal with not the bearest of margins and finally New Zealand buried the ghosts of 2019
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| Chris Jordan |
.Jimmy Neesham couldn't do in 2019 final but has done the job in 2021 and helped his side to qualify for the 1st ever T20 World Cup final. The journey of New Zealand cricket has been amazing they are true planners and have the ability to execute them perfectly and have the most lovable leader Kane Williamson.
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| Jimmy Neesham |
I think Brandon Maccallum was the one who changed the dimensions of the Kiwis in the 2015 World Cup and after that, they have a clear template in every tournament. They played semi-final in 2016 and final in 2019 and another final of WTC in 2021 and won it against India and now they are also on the hot seat again.
Pakistan Vs Australia
The 2nd semi-final was also one of the greatest matches of cricket and Pakistan was the hot favorite to win it but Australia and the knock-out match is still a better love story than anything else.
Test of Nerves
Pakistan team wasn't tested before in this tournament and things came with the plans towards them and they were pretty good to get through but for the 1st time but in the most critical situation they were tested by the most brutal side. Aaron Finch won the toss and without any hesitation elected to bowl 1st. Pakistan was playing with a different approach in the whole tournament, the strategy was not to lose a wicket in power-play even though the run rate might be low but can be covered up in the latter half but as we all know this could be really dangerous at some point in modern-day cricket.
But Pakistan started well in the powerplay with the most percentage of attacking shots especially we should appreciate the effort from Mohammad Rizwan who was in ICU past 2 days but came out to bat and bail out Pakistan, they were 46/0 at the end of powerplay but after that things were slow down a little in middle overs. Adam Zampa and part-timer Glenn Maxwell bowled pretty well to keep things under control.
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| Mohammad Rizwan |
In the end, the onslaught from Fakhar Zaman made sure that Pakistan got a fighting total on the board of 176 but the 19th over from Pat Cummins made a huge difference in the game as he gave away just 3 runs and got a wicket also. In the end, Pakistan was at least 15 runs short, and don't forget Australia dropped 3 catches one from Warner, one from Zampa, and one from Smith which was the easier ones as the standard of Aussies.
Australian's Ruthless Approach
The 1st over from Shaheen Shah Afridi was truly outstanding and brutal and he pinned Finch in front of the stumps but after that Marsh and Warner put the pressure back on Pakistan and after powerplay, Australia was 52/1 and was back in the game in a big time.
Then Shadab joined the party and got 4 wickets including the huge wicket of Steve Smith.I think he played a really false shot and that's why he is way behind in the list of fab 4 in T20 cricket.
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| Shadab Khan |
Australia required 76 in the last 7 overs with 5 wickets in hand against Pakistan in UAE you normally back them to win that but cricket is a very unpredictable game and against Australia, it's extremely difficult to hit a punch. Marcus Stoinis used his all IPL experience and calculate the equation in his own mind. He attacked Hassan and Haris to keep themselves alive. Australia required 22 in the last 2 overs then Hassan dropped a sitter and after that Wade smashed him 3 sixes in a row against Pakistan's best death bowler. In cricket, they say it's never done until it's done but Shaheen didn't understand that. People will blame Hassan but I think it's part of the game and if you have to defend 12 runs per over you should back yourself irrespective of drop catch or poor fielding. Pakistan's bowlers were under pressure for the 1st time but it was the most critical time and they were exposed badly.
In the presentation, Babar also mentioned that catch which also put extra pressure on Hassan from social media I think he should back himself, and no need to mention that. If you take out the Shadab spell and 1st over of Shaheen there was the domination of Australian batters in the rest of the overs so it means they couldn't show the intensity in the whole game.
But the way Pakistan has played in this tournament, under those circumstances, was absolutely remarkable and we can proud of them. So still plenty of cricket has to come and especially most importantly the grand final between Australia Vs New Zealand and will see a new champion out there on 24th November.
So that's it from our side you can visit us here www.cric-talk.com for more
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