MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Pakistan booked their place in the T20 World Cup semi-finals and Babar Azam’s team have the Netherlands to thanks for doing them a huge favour in Adelaide on Sunday.
Pakistan made an inauspicious start to their Super 12 campaign, losing their tournament opener to arch-rivals India followed by another last-ball loss to Zimbabwe.
By the time Pakistan registered their second victory against South Africa in a rain-truncated match in Sydney, their fate had slipped out of their own hands.
Their slim chances of making the last four depended on the Netherlands pulling off a giant-killing act against South Africa at the Adelaide Oval.
Much to their relief, the Dutch team under Scott Edwards did just that, eking out a 13-run victory which was their first against South Africa in any format.
After the Dutch side post a competitive 158-4, Brandon Glover (3-9) led a lion-hearted bowling effort to restrict South Africa to 145-8.
The result provided a lifeline for Pakistan who then needed to beat Bangladesh in their final Super 2 game to move into the semi-finals.
Babar’s team did precisely that with a five-wicket victory to stay in contention for a second T20 World Cup title.
“We played pretty good cricket in the tournament,” Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Afridi told a new conference.
“Even the two matches we lost, those were in the final delivery. We did not get the results we wanted but there is no doubt that we played good cricket.”
The Pakistan players watched on nervously as the Dutch side stunned South Africa, who again lived up to their “chokers” tag in global tournaments.
“We watched the game, it was a great result for us,” said Afridi, whose 4-22 against Bangladesh earned him the player-of-the-match award.
“But we know the result was not in our hand, so we were preparing for our game (against Bangladesh).”
Pakistan bowler Shahnawaz Dahani posted on Twitter a couple of photos of Dutch cricketers with a caption saying “Friends in need are friends indeed”.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Ed Osmond)
