The finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 will be played between New Zealand and Australia on 14th November at Dubai International Stadium as Australia has become the second team to enter the finals by defeating Pakistan in the semi-final which was played yesterday at Dubai International Stadium.
Pakistan was going pretty well in the tournament and it was invincible till the semi-finals but its dream of winning the T20 World Cup 2021 ended after Australia put up a great show and achieved the target of 177 with five wickets in hand and one over remaining.
The toss was won by Australia and they chose to bowl first in this important match. Batting first, the Pakistani openers produced a partnership of 71 runs as the skipper Babar Azam got out on 39 (34 balls, 5 fours) in the tenth over of the innings. Mohammad Rizwan played a superb knock of 67 runs (52 balls, 3 fours & 4 sixes) and he was well supported by Fakhar Zaman who remained not out at 55 (32 balls, 3 fours & 4 sixes).
Pakistan put up a good total of 176/4 in its 20 overs and in reply, team Australia had a pretty bad start as Aaron Finch got out on a golden duck. David Warner (49 runs, 30 balls, 3 fours & 3 sixes) and Mitchell Marsh (28 runs, 22 balls, 3 fours & 1 six) stabilized the innings for Australia but after they both got out, things looked murky for the Aussies as Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell got out early at the scores of 5 & 7 respectively.
Marcus Stoinis played a useful innings of 40 runs not out (31 balls, 2 fours & 2 sixes) but if there was someone who changed the game completely, it was Matthew Wade who played a quick knock of 41 runs not out (17 balls, 2 fours & 4 sixes) which also included three straight sixes of Shaheen Afridi in the penultimate over.
However, one more incident that caught everybody’s attention was David Warner hitting a six on the delivery which took two bounces in reaching to him. The incident took place in the 8th over when Mohammad Hafeez lost control of the ball and it bounced twice; Warner went towards leg-side, got under it and hit a huge six of it.
The ball was given no-ball by the umpire and David Warner also got a free hit for it but Warner hitting a six on this ball was not liked by the former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir who found it against the spirit of the game. Not only this, he also asked Ravichandran Ashwin to comment it as the Indian spinner had been a part of controversies where he was accused of violating the spirit of cricket.
Gambhir tweeted, “What an absolutely pathetic display of spirit of the game by Warner! #Shameful What say @ashwinravi99?”
What an absolutely pathetic display of spirit of the game by Warner! #Shameful What say @ashwinravi99? pic.twitter.com/wVrssqOENW
— Gautam Gambhir (Modi Ka Parivar) (@GautamGambhir) November 11, 2021
Warner’s dismissal also sparked controversy as he was given caught behind on the bowling of Shadab Khan but ultra-edge showed that there was no contact between bat and ball. Warner could have challenged the decision but he didn’t choose to and he was seen regretting it when the Aussies were in a poor situation.
Do you agree with Gautam Gambhir? What is your opinion in regard to the whole episode? Let us know.