Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat

Yesterday's game between Australia and Pakistan in the second semi-finals of the T20 world cup was something different than reading some freeta's blog when a total of 191 was not only chased down successfully by the Aussies but also ended with the winning runs being scored in the form of a six. Aussies nevertheless were at one stage reeling at 105/5 from 12.3 over with their top five batsmen heading back towards the dressing room. Still, Mike Hussey had different things in mind when the wickets tumbling at the other end never seemed to bother him and he continued to sail with ease.

In yesterday's match, Mike Hussey was a T20 version of Michael Beaven who is famous for Australia's wins in the semi-finals of the 1996 and 1999 world cups. Whatsoever, no one can ever blame the Pakistani batsmen or their bowlers for their loss. The Pakistani batsmen got everything right with all of their top order batsmen barring Afridi contributing with the bat. And, a total of 191 on the board speaks for itself. Despite the score ticking for Pakistan, Dirk Nannes got an over maiden which was a highlight of Aussie bowling. It was just impossible for part time bowler to stop the flow of runs.

After the top bowlers namely Johnson, Nannes and Tait finished their spells, Clarke had no option but to toss the ball to Watson, Smith and David Hussey who added fuel to the Pakistani fire. The Aussies needless to be said kept on losing wickets at regular intervals with the scoreboard at one stage reading 105/5 as mentioned with Australia needing 87 runs from 45 balls at a rate of 2.00 runs every ball on an average. Though it has not happened for Australia in the past, this time the Aussie batsmen have been flawless with their approach to the T20 game.

Aussies have been unbeaten in this world cup when no one expected them to do so. Aussies have dominated the other two formats of the game for nearly decades which need not be cited specially but they had a problem with T20 format which forced Ponting to call it a day. With the T20 being the shortest version of the game, one has to give hats-off to Mike Hussey for bringing back Australia into the game. There is little time left in T20 game unlike in ODIs and tests. Hussey's innings gives rise to a new saying "Fast and steady wins the race".

What can you say about Australia?

Well Australia's performance against Bangladesh in yesterday's match of the world T20 was very much below par compared to what was expected out of them and against the opposition they were facing. Australia's score against Bangladesh at Bridgetown was 141 which was too less for reasons mentioned above. The total should have been a minimum of 180. But, one can hardly criticize the Aussies for having won their major battle against Pakistan earlier this week at Gros Islet by 34 runs. There should have been a thrashing by Australia and not just a formal reply. A total of 141 was something which even Bangladesh would have chased.

Bangladesh has a history of chasing down a total in excess of 160 against West Indies in the inaugural edition of the world T20 in 2007. Anyways, coming to the match, a thorough look at the scorecard suggests that the notable score from Australia happened to be from a number 7 batsman in Mike Hussey who scored 47. One can guess that the pitch favored the bowlers where batting was definitely a challenge and then, there were the likes of David Warner, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke who could have done much with the bat. But, all that they could do was not score above 16 runs.

The second highest score from the Australian innings was from Warner and Clarke who scored 16. Rest of the batsmen who made it to the crease got out scoring single digit scores. The Bangladesh captain - Shakib Al Hasan did not try more than 5 bowlers when he got all of them bowl their complete quota. As said above, the pitch never seemed to give any room to the batsmen, as a result of which the Bangladeshi innings saw two wickets fall with a score of 4 on the board with their openers getting out for a duck and the third batsman getting out for a score which was the next best thing to a duck.

But, though Bangladesh lost the game eventually, their team effort was better than that of Australia. There were four players who scored above ten and two of them above 20 unlike Australia where only Hussey scored above 20. Nannes had a ball when he had four wickets and was the most successful bowler of the match. But, with no prizes for bowlers in that game, the obvious choice for the man of the match award was none other than Mike Hussey who stood there at the crease with 6 batsmen leaving him single. With this, Australia for the 1^st time have won both matches in the pool stage.