Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan lauded the men’s cricket team for their performance in the T20 World Cup after their defeat to Australia in the semi-final of the tournament on Thursday. An 81-run partnership between Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis that came in just 41 balls took the game away from Pakistan, with the former ending the match with three consecutive sixes off Shaheen Afridi in the 19th over.
Pakistan were the only team to have won all their Super 12 games going into the semi-final. While the match see-sawed both ways, particularly during Australia’s chase of the 177-run target, Wade and Stoinis went big in the last four overs to take them to the final.
Australia needed 22 runs from the last two overs and Wade got a reprieve when Hasan Ali dropped him off Shaheen Afridi in the penultimate one. Wade sent the next three balls from Afridi soaring over the ropes and Australia reached their target with one over to spare.
Earlier, Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman smashed breezy half-centuries to help Pakistan post 176/4 at the Dubai International Stadium.
“The way we started in the first half, we got the total we targeted. But we gave them too much of a chance at the end of the chase,” Pakistan captain Babar Azam said in the post-match presentation ceremony after his team was knocked out.
