T20 World cup – Did Australia ended Pakistan’s dream run?

Australia has made it to the semi-final of the T20 World Cup where they will meet unbeaten Group 2 winners, Pakistan and Australia vs Pakistan will take place.

Here's everything you need to know about the match.

How did Australia make the semi-finals?

David Warner teed off against West Indies earlier in the tournament. Not many gave Australia much hope in this T20 World Cup after heavy series defeats in Bangladesh and the Caribbean.

However, Australia bucked expectations by finishing second in Group 1, recording four wins and just one defeat.

After a narrow, five-wicket win over South Africa in their first match, Australia beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets to put themselves in a very strong position.

A heavy, eight-wicket defeat against England followed, but blistering eight-wicket wins over Bangladesh and the West Indies got Aaron Finch's men over the line.

How have Pakistan done this tournament?

Pakistan's players were overjoyed to beat India so comprehensively in Dubai earlier in the competition. After belting bitter rivals India by 10 wickets in their opening match, Pakistan have ridden a wave of euphoria all the way to the semis.

Wins over New Zealand, Afghanistan, Namibia and Scotland leave Pakistan as the only team yet to face defeat in this year's tournament.

That performance is all the more impressive considering the withdrawal of New Zealand and England from limited overs tours in the build-up to the tournament threw Pakistan's preparations into disarray.

What difference will the toss make?

Shaheed Afridi was man of the match in Pakistan's demolition of India. One of the interesting aspects of this year's tournament has been the way the different venues have played.

However, one constant is how important the toss is, and nowhere is it more important than Dubai. Of the 11 World Cup matches that have taken place in Dubai, 10 have been won by the team batting second, around 90 per cent.

Overall this World Cup, the team batting second has won 26 of 41 matches, 63 per cent.

The one game in Dubai in which the team batting first won was between New Zealand and Scotland, which New Zealand won by just 16 runs.

Key players

Adam Zampa has figures of 2-12, 5-19 and 1-37 in his three games in Dubai so far. Spinners are very important in this match — in six of the 11 games to take place in Dubai, a spinner has taken man of the match honours, including Adam Zampa.
 
The average first innings score at Dubai in this tournament is 122, but that average is skewed horribly by some woeful efforts by West Indies (55 vs. England), Bangladesh (73 vs. Australia) and Scotland (85 vs. India).

The highest score to be successfully chased down was Sri Lanka's 154 by Australia (3-155) —but Scotland managed 5-156 in their ultimately fruitless chase against New Zealand indicating that anything over 160 would pose an interesting target.

What is Australia's record in Dubai?

Aside from the big defeat against England, Australia have enjoyed their matches in Dubai this World Cup. Australia has played three games at Dubai for wins over Sri Lanka and Bangladesh (when batting second) and a defeat to England (when batting first).

Australia and Pakistan have met seven times at the venue, with Pakistan winning four of them — including the two most recent matches in 2018. Australia has two wins, with one tie. It was interesting to watch Australia vs. Pakistan.

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