Pakistan won all their five matches in the Super 12 stage and topped the Group 2.
Pakistan is set to face Australia in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2021 after they finished at the top of the points table of Group 2. They are confident after winning all their five matches in the Super 12, which included a win over India by 10 wickets.
But former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir warned Babar Azam and company to be careful against Australia. He advised Pakistan to not repeat the mistakes they did in the Super 12 matches and got away.
Amir said that the Pakistan batters have failed to utilize the powerplay and had to make up for it later. But Australia won't let Pakistan do it if they miss out on the important overs of powerplay.
“The mindset of teams, especially in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, is to post a score around 160, and in order to do that you need to take advantage of the powerplay. If you look at the match against Namibia, despite the fact that they didn’t have any world-class bowlers, Pakistan didn’t utilise the powerplay properly and tried to make up for it at the back end of the innings,” said Amir on his official YouTube channel.
“However, Australia won’t let you do that. They won’t concede 60 runs in the last four overs so Pakistan needs to ensure that they play attacking cricket from ball one. If you go in survival mode against top sides at the beginning, they won’t give you margin to make a comeback later in the match. We need to score at least 35-40 runs in the powerplay in order to score 160 plus,” he added.
Amir further said that Australia are currently in a good rhythm and it is going to be a test for the Pakistan team to secure a spot in the final. “Pakistan’s real test will now begin because, in my opinion, the only team which could have given tough time to Pakistan in the group stage was India as we know the conditions in UAE very well,” he said.
“Australia have been playing some good cricket and Pakistan needs to be on top of their game to beat them. Chasing [against West Indies] 160 in 16 overs for the loss of two wickets is no joke, it means that they [Australia] are in good rhythm,” he concluded.
Pakistan defeated Scotland by 72 runs in their last Super 12 match. The match featured Shoaib Malik's 18-ball 50 which is the tournament's joint fastest half-century alongside India opener K L Rahul.
After scoring 189/4, Pakistan restricted Scotland at 117 for six and secured the top spot in their group which was taken by New Zealand after beating Afghanistan earlier on the same day.