Australia beating Pakistan in the quarterfinal of the 2015 World Cup was always on the cards. It was only the unpredictable nature of the Pakistan team that kept the match open on Friday. After Pakistan were bowled out for 213, no one inside the Adelaide Oval gave them a real chance to win over Australia and in the end they were right.
Pakistan were knocked out of the World Cup by Australia by six wickets with 97 balls remaining. Australia will now take on defending champions India in the World Cup semifinals in Sydney. This was Australia’s sixth win in the competition from seven matches.
It was more of less a one-sided game from the time Pakistan started their batting. They lost their openers in no time and then kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Josh Hazlewood was the pick among the Australian bowler. He was well supported by Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and Glenn Maxwell.
For Pakistan, it was Wahab Riaz who was the lone fighter. He picked two Australian wickets in the early part of his spell, and then, the left-arm fast bowler was unfortunate to miss out on the opportunities to dismiss Shane Watson and Glenn Maxwell. They were on two and seven respectively when the Pakistani fielders dropped those catches.
Most crucial was the dropped catch from Rahat Ali in the third-man area off Riaz. That time Watson was new to the crease and his wicket could have changed the complexion of the game. But the Pakistan lost the moment after that dropped chance.
Prior to this, the Riaz-Watson battle was the highest point of the match. For Australia, Steve Smith played a very crucial role after captain Michael Clarke became victim of Riaz’s fast and furious spell. Even Watson played a very crucial knock for his team after a very shaky start to his innings. He remained unbeaten at 64.
Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat. The stage was set for captain Misbah-ul-Haq and his middle-order batsmen to make most of the opportunity. But none of them could make it count. Haris Sohail top scored with 41 while Misbah made 34. At least, five batsmen from the Pakistan team got off to a decent start, but none of them could transform them in to something fruitful.
The Pakistan batting as well as their fielding let them down in the match. For Australia, it was mostly their effort on the field with the ball and their catching that made all the deference. For Pakistan, this was the last time Misbah was leading the side.
He will have to face a lot of flak for the way his team performed in this match. There were a few who expected Pakistan to fight till the end, but there wasn’t that many runs on the board to sustain it.
