Riaz Kail and Ali Asad led an inspired fightback to fire Pakistan into the final
The Bulletin by Andrew McGlashan in Colombo16-Feb-2006
Scorecard
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Pakistan will take on arch-rivals India in the World Cup final after
overwhelming Australia at the Premadasa Stadium. Their triumph represents
a stirring revival after they had slumped to 80 for 5. However a stunning
partnership of 160 between Riaz Kail and Ali Asad powered them towards a
daunting 287 for 9, then Australia’s much-vaunted top order failed to
deliver in the face of a huge run-chase.Jamshed Ahmed removed the two key elements of Australia’s batting, Tom
Cooper and Moises Henriques, in a fiery opening burst. Cooper has been key
in anchoring Australia’s batting efforts so his early demise was a huge
boost for Pakistan and when Henriques played an airy drive, the main
players were back in the hutch inside 10 overs.Henriques said the situation had affected some of his players: “We were
certainly on top of our game at that point and it’s unfortunate that we
couldn’t keep it going as we have done against the last few sides we have
played. It was the first time the guys had played under lights and maybe
the pressure got the better of them.”But the real damage had been done in the second half of Pakistan’s
innings. Kail and Asad began by ensuring the team would have something to
defend. Then, as their partnership and confidence grew the strokeplay
expanded, forcing Australia to retreat.Kail launched Pakistan back into life. He attacked the Australian spin pairing
of Jack McNamara and Jon Holland, then as the field was pushed back, both
batsmen ran well between the wickets, leaving Australia looking flustered.Mansoor Rana, Pakistan’s coach, always believed his side had the ability
to turn around the poor start: “We just needed a partnership and the two
in the middle-order did that with the rebuilding process. We have depth in
our batting and just needed to go up to 35 or 40 overs and it worked
really well for us today. My bowling has been very good for the last
couple of months and here our batting wasn’t really coming up to the mark
but our bowling was superb.”Even when the pair were dispatched by Simon Keen in the 46th over – Kail
for a 99-ball 84 and Asad an 86-ball 69 – the swinging didn’t stop.
Australia’s bowling figures, which had earlier been so impressive, took a
serious hammering with Imad Wasim keeping the pace going until the end
with 29 off 15 balls.The shift in momentum was demonstrated as Pakistan hit the ground running
in the field. Australia couldn’t gain any foothold against the impressive
Jamshed, while Anwar Ali bowled his ten overs straight through without any
luck. Usman Khawaja made a battling half-century from 65 balls, but could
not find anyone to stay with him. Once he was dismissed the end was near.The lower order swished around, but the fight was going out of the
Australians. Each batsman trooped back with their head down knowing that,
despite being one of the two best teams in the tournament, they weren’t going
to be making it to the final.
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Rana saved special praise for the efforts of his fielders. “Today I was
really happy with the fielding. The nature of Pakistani people is that
they do things when they are really required, and today was the example of
that, but I wasn’t really expecting this fielding from them.”There had been a very different feeling for the first hour and a half of
the day. Henriques and Adam Ritchard claimed two wickets apiece as
Pakistan’s batsmen displayed their wasteful side. Anwar Ali’s dismissal
was tinged with controversy as it appeared the slip catch to Finch hadn’t
carried, but the run-out of Rameez Raja was just plain careless as he
chanced a second to David Warner in the covers.However, in exhilarating style, they found two heroes in the middle order
and their bowlers found the consistency to back up those efforts. The
Pakistan supporters – finally some fans had turned up to watch this
tournament – jumped for joy as the final wicket fell, but as the team
celebrated they will have known the biggest challenge is two days away.How they were outPakistanMohammad Ibrahim c Wade b Ritchard 2 (9 for 1)
Nasir Jamshed st Wade b Ritchard 15 (26 for 2)
Ali Khan c Ritchard b Henriques 18 (62 for 3)
Anwar Ali c Finch b Henriques 1 (68 for 4)
Rameez Raja run out (Warner) 29 (80 for 5)
Ali Asad c Ritchard b Keen 66 (240 for 6)
Riaz Kail b Keen 86 (241 for 7)
Sarfraz Ahmed c Cooper b Henriques (262 for 8)
Jamshed Ahmed run out (Warner) 2 (284 for 9)
AustraliaTom Cooper c Sarfraz b Jamshed 1 (3 for 1)
Moises Henriques b Jamshed 8 (20 for 2)
Matthew Wade run out (Anwar Ali) 11 (53 for 3)
Aaron Finch lbw b Wasim 11 (99 for 4)
David Warner lbw b Malik 1 (104 for 5)
Usman Khawaja run out (Ali Asad) 59 (109 for 6)
Simon Keen st Sarfraz b Malik 3 (118 for 7)
Adam Ritchard b Malik 1 (122 for 8)
Tom Stray c Anwar b Wasim 10 (124 for 9)
Jon Holland lbw b Wasim 0 (124 all out)
