Twitter Reactions: Ruthless Pakistan stay unbeaten to make it five wins in a row in T20 World Cup

Pakistan will face Australia in the semi-final.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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3 Min Read

Shoaib Malik
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Shoaib Malik. (Photo by Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)

Pakistan are now the only unbeaten team in the ongoing T20 World Cup. They defeated Scotland very comfortably in their final Super 12 game of the tournament and go into the knockouts with great momentum on their side. The Men in Green will face Australia in the semi-final and are only two good wins away from winning the T20 World Cup for the second time.

Coming back to the game, Babar Azam decided to test his troops yet again and opted to bat first. However, Scotland bowlers did well tie him and Mohammad Rizwan in the powerplay overs. Pakistan could only score 35 runs and lost Rizwan in the process with pressure building. Fakhar Zaman’s form, the only unticked box, stayed the same way for them as the left-hander could only muster 8 runs off 13 balls.

At 59/2 in the 10th over, Scotland had done an extremely good job. But Babar Azam was just opening up by then and the veteran Mohammad Hafeez took some pressure off his captain with a blazing knock. The duo added 53 runs for the third wicket with the latter scoring 31 runs off just 19 balls.

Babar played some gorgeous strokes on the way to his fourth fifty of the tournament. He smashed 66 runs off 47 balls with five fours and three sixes before getting out. However, real impetus to the innings was provided by another veteran Shoaib Malik who was included in the WC squad at the last moment. Malik showed his worth not for the first time opening up the floodgates like anything.

He took full toll of some poor bowling from Scotland and churned out runs for fun hitting sixes in Sharjah. Malik smashed more than 20 runs in the final over of the innings to bring up the joint-fastest fifty in this year’s edition. He remained unbeaten on 54 off just 18 balls with six sixes and a four as Pakistan finished on 189/4 in their 20 overs amassing 77 runs in last five overs.

Berrington shines for Scotland with the bat

Scotland needed to put up a special performance to even get close to 190 in the chase. But they were soon four down with only 41 runs on the board. Pakistan bowlers continued their good form tying up the opposition batters with even the in-form George Munsey crawling his way to 17 runs off 31 balls.

The result of the match was irrelevant halfway into the chase and Scotland then played some free cricket largely thanks to Richie Berrington. The all-rounder slammed an impressive half-century showcasing his range of hitting. He was the only batter to cross the 20-run mark while only two more Scotland players reached the double figures with the bat.

Berrington remained not-out on 54 off 37 balls and was the only shining light for Scotland in the chase. It was a collective bowling performance yet again from Pakistan bowlers as they restricted the opposition only to 117/6 winning the game by 72 runs. Spinners, Imad Wasim (0/17) and Shadab Khan (2/14), once again troubled Scotland and they would be keen on improving in this aspect of the game when they arrive down under next year for yet another shot at impressing at the big stage.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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