Former Pakistani captains Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, and Shahid Afridi were over the moon after the Men in Green defeated New Zealand by 7 wickets in the first semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022 at Sydney on Wednesday, November 9, 2022.
Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan hit half-centuries and added 105 runs for the opening wicket as they chased down the 153-run target easily on a conducive SCG pitch. Earlier Daryl Mitchell’s 53* and Kane Williamson’s 46 had powered New Zealand to 152/4 after choosing to bat first.
“Well done boys. Lot of criticism. There were a lot of talks but you proved everyone wrong. You guys are the superstars. Pakistan in the finals of a World Cup in Australia, Inshallah, history is going to repeat again on the 13th,” said Waqar Younis on A Sports.
Akram had said earlier, “Pakistan is one of top sides in the world to qualify for the semifinals. That’s their sixth semifinal. That’s where I think the confidence will be today. Overall if we look to compare this win with the 92′ World Cup, we as a team knew we could defeat New Zealand. There’s a self confidence that comes in psychologically when you face New Zealand. We’ve beaten them to win the tri-series recently. If we look at the World Cup (T20), out of the six games, four have been won by Pakistan and two by New Zealand. Take all the semifinals in the World Cups (T20 and ODIs), Pakistan have won all of them.”
Post-match, his former bowling partner, Waqar Younis credited the team’s bowling on the win against the Kiwis in Sydney.
He stated: “Our bowling attack is the best bowling attack in the world. And it has proved the same today as well. When there’s reverse swing in the offering then the slower one of a quick bowler becomes very lethal. And today the way the bowlers used that slower one and read the pitch, it was just great to see. The plans were executed really well. Nothing went wrong. Our day, simple.”
Shahid Afridi couldn’t contain his joy at Pakistan’s win and shared his thoughts on Samaa TV.
He said: “I had said this before as well that whichever team fields better will win. Today if you look at Pakistan, from the start they were outstanding. The language of every player looked fantastic and they fielded really well. Our fielding won us the match. Bowlers did their job, batters were brilliant. In all three departments, we were better than New Zealand, which is why the result was positive.”
He further added, “Shaheen (Afridi) made a strong comeback post injury. The importance of new ball is that when you pick wickets early on, it builds more pressure on the opposition. If we talk about New Zealand, they tried to build that pressure but missed out on it. The dropped catch of Babar (Azam) in the first over was beneficial for us. That was the key differentiator. New Zealand dropped three catches today. Pakistan’s fielding was much better.”
Pakistan will face the winner of the India vs England semifinal match in the T20 World Cup final in Melbourne on Sunday.
