Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes Pakistan's spirited performances with both bat and ball during the powerplay overs were instrumental in their seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final.
Speaking to India Today, he pointed out that a team will more often than not win the game when it wins both of the powerplays of the game.
“Every time we say in the IPL, whoever wins the powerplay goes on to win the match more often than not. There are two powerplays in both innings. If you win both the powerplays like Pakistan did, it clearly meant that they were going to win,” he said.
Pakistan's campaign, however, got off to a shaky start with consecutive losses to India and Zimbabwe. However, they regrouped well to win their remaining three matches against the Netherlands, South Africa, and Bangladesh. Its qualification into the semi-finals was made possible by Netherlands’ unexpected win over the Proteas.
The Indian great, however, believes that between the match against India and the match against the Kiwis, nothing has changed in the Pakistan team.
“At the start of the tournament you wouldn’t say that but now they’ve got to the finals, you’re saying it’s a well-knit team. This is exactly how we are. When we lose, we keep pointing fingers at what’s going wrong. And once you reach the finals, all you’ve done is forgotten. I don’t think there was anything different in this Pakistan team, from what we saw today and what we saw in the first game against India,” he added.
On Wednesday, the pieces fell into place nicely for the Men in Green with Shaheen Shah Afridi striking in the first over, openers Babar Azam (53 off 42 balls) and Mohammad Rizwan (57 off 43 balls) scoring half-centuries.
Gavaskar reckons that the openers getting runs was the key to the Babar-led side’s win over the BlackCaps.
“Just that their skipper wasn’t getting runs. Their openers are playing well. The opening partnership stabilizes the whole innings. Chasing 152, if the opposition cannot get a wicket in the first six overs, it puts pressure of them. That’s exactly what they did, that was the key,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the second semi-final will see India taking on England on Thursday (November 10) at the Adelaide Oval.
(INDIA TODAY INPUTS)
