T20 World Cup | Road to final: Peaking at right time, Australia aspire to restore withering legacy

Australia have defied all their critics and sceptics to emerge into the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup and then their players showed remarkable temperament and audacity to overpower an unbeaten Pakistan side to enter the finals.

They will be playing only their second final of the T20 World Cup and the Aaron Finch-led side would be eager to open their account in the global event of the shortest format as well after having won the ODI World Cup on as many as five occasions.

They were one of the worst-performing sides in the bilateral series in the past few years leading up to the tournament and had also suffered a humiliating first series defeat at the hands of Bangladesh just a few weeks ahead of the marquee event.

Here, we are looking at their journey from a side not tipped as even the third-best in Group A, touted as the group of death, to one of the finalists, on the brink of their maiden T20 title.

Against South Africa

They faced the in-form Proteas in the first game on the back of intense debate if the Australian side was good enough for the modern T20 game. There was a lot at stake in the game as ultimately the result of the game would have gone on to decide who among the two sides eventually made it into the semi-finals. 

A well-rounded bowling attack of the seam and spin bowling limited the Proteas to a meagre 118 runs from 20 overs. The trio of Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood picked up two wickets each while Pat Cummins was extremely accurate to pick up one wicket for 17 runs from his four overs.

In reply, the Australians were in a spot of bother with the opening pair not bucking their poor form and failing to give them a steady start. There were wickets at regular intervals but the pair of Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis led a counter-attacking fight back for the first time in the tournament to take them home by five wickets.

Against Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka have had to come through to the Super 12 stage after passing through the qualifier stage and they looked like a side in momentum as their batsmen were up and about in the game against the Australian pacers.

The trio of  Kusal Perera, Charith Asalanka, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa made the Australian decorated bowling attack work hard, but they too were up for it and did not allow them to go away with the game.

In pursuit of 155 runs which could have been a lot on the board if the openers would not have fired, David Warner and Finch made light work of the chase by adding 70 runs in just seven overs and in the end, they won it convincingly by seven wickets with 18 balls to spare.

Against England

With two wins out of the first game, England were up and running with full momentum in the tournament until they ran into their arch-rivals England, who were decimating every opponent coming their way and the Australians were not spared either.

Losing the toss and being invited to bat first, Australia struggled to get the ball off the square and batsmen could not find any bit of timing to pace their innings. Turned out, they were bowled out for 125 runs on the board and as expected, England's batting lineup came out all guns blazing with the bat.

The opening pair of Jason Roy and Jos Buttler added 66 runs but the real carnage followed after the departure of Roy. Buttler took a liking to the duo of Starc and Zampa and both conceded 37 runs each in their three overs that night.

England thumped them and ripped open all the faultlines in their side. The Australians needed to pick themselves up as there were a lot remaining in the tournament and they were still in the race.

Against Bangladesh

Meanwhile, West Indies were on a downward slide with almost every game and it seemed unlikely that they would turn it on and reach the semi-finals implying both the Australian and the Proteas got the opportunity of qualifying that they were not given from the outset.

But for that, Australia had to come back and that too resoundingly well to stay on the course for the qualification. They did exactly that by turning their fortunes around and inflicting excruciating pain on Bangladesh.

Once again the trio of Starc, Hazlewood and Zampa were dominant and the leg spinner was the prominent one at that with a match-winning five-wicket haul that reduced Bangladesh to 73 runs.

There, Australia got the opportunity to correct their run rate that wasn’t any better with a close win against South Africa and was further dismantled by a rampant England side and Jos Buttler. They chased down the target of 78 runs in only 6.2 overs and revived their world cup journey with sparkling colours.

Against West Indies

Australia were having a better tournament than the world had expected of them but so were the Proteas who were becoming consistent with each passing game. Hence there was an indirect collision between them on the last day of the group A games in the Super 12 stage.

Australia and West Indies were playing on the first day of the contest while the Proteas were facing hot-favourites England in their last group game. For Australia to go through without any permutations and combinations, they needed England to defeat South Africa and vice-versa for South Africa as they needed the Windies to defeat Australia in order to gain direct qualification.

However, things did not turn out that well for the Proteas’ expectation and Australia defeated West Indies and that too by a big margin that boosted their net run rate even further.

South Africa were jolted but they had the last option of defeating England by more than 65 runs which appeared a mountainous task given England’s form till that moment in the tournament. Turned out, they defeated England but the margin was missed and so was their chance of qualifying into the semi-finals.

South Africa would consider themselves unlucky as they got knocked out of the tournament with four wins out of the five games—same as Australia’s performance and one of their wins came against England—the most cherished side of the tournament. However, Australia were dominant in three out of the four games they won and that, in the end, gave them the competitive advantage over the Proteas and also a chance to secure a semi-final berth.

Semi-final against Pakistan

Aaron Finch had everything going into the big game against Pakistan as he won the very crucial toss in Dubai and also had a big legacy of Australia not losing even a single knockout game to Pakistan in the past. But, Pakistan, too, were onto something special and arrived in the semi-final having dismantled their curse against India. On top of that, they were the unbeaten side leading into the game and in T20Is played in the UAE.

Both were the in-form sides and it was tipped off as a battle between the Australian bowling attack against Pakistan’s top order of Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman. Pakistan made a brilliant start and beat their previous best powerplay performances of the tournament as the opening pair stitched yet another long partnership. Fakhar finally came good with the bat on the night that mattered the most until that point in the tournament and Pakistan were having another significant advantage of having big runs on the board in a high-0ctane clash.

Their star pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi did what he does best and removed Finch even before Australia could breathe a little. Mitchell Marsh and Warner tried to calm the nerves and up the ante against ever so impressive Pakistan bowling checked their growth.

Shadab Khan weaved his magic and removed all of Marsh, Steve Smith, Warner and Glenn Maxwell in his four overs to leave them tottering at five down with the required run rate surging past 12 runs per over.

However, there was no lack of firepower with the bat for Australia and fittingly, the pair of Wade and Stoinis, who had started their rise and opened their winning account in the tournament, led them to a superlative win and into the final.

Wade decimated the Pakistan pace attack and made their impressive pacers look average and bewildered in face of a fierce counterattack that ended only with the Australians getting over the line.

Australia have had an undisputed command over ICC tournaments in the past but that legacy seems to be withering away with each passing tournament. Now, having come so close to it, the Aaron Finch-led side would be desperate to leave a lasting impression on the world of cricket, and especially, in the format, they are known to excel in the past.