Respective semi finals on Friday at Northampton had seen Pakistan overpower West Indies by 20 runs while India trounced Australia by a massive margin of 86 runs in the second match of the last-four stage.
The final is slated for Saturday at Birmingham starting from 9:30pm IST
Indian batting clicks
Opener Robin Uthappa’s racy 65 off 35 balls, including four sixes and six fours, set up India’s middle order.
Though Ambati Rayudu (14) and Suresh Raina (5) were gone early, Uthappa carried on as Yuvraj Singh came to the crease and put on a further defiant fourth wicket stand worth 47.
Xavier Doherty bowled a crucial spell that got rid of Uthappa who was looking dangerous while there was no lull in India’s intent to score rapidly.
However Peter Siddle cleaned Yuvraj (59 off 28 balls) before he could inflict further damage upon Australia with his bat. The flamboyant left-hander scored five sixes and four boundaries.
Then it was time for the Pathan brothers to take over with Irfan joining his elder brother Yusuf. In India’s last match, they separated following Irfan’s run-out because of a misunderstanding between them that left him annoyed. But there were no such incidents on Saturday as the brothers fired together.
In just 5.4 overs, the Pathan brothers took Aussie bowlers apart as they piled up 95 runs with Irfan being more destructive of the pair in making fifty coming from just nineteen balls faced.
Finally Siddle got through Irfan in last over but Yusuf remained unbeaten after scoring 51 off just twenty-three deliveries along with other Indian three half centurions helping to push total to mammoth two hundred and fifty four for six against paceman Brett Lee who gave 60 away in his quota of four overs without taking a wicket, while Siddle’s 4/57 were best among the bowlers.
Australia needed their openers Shaun Marsh (2) and Aaron Finch (16) to provide them with a solid start but the top three including Ben Dunk (10) all fell within the power play overs making the big run chase difficult at 42 for 3.
The procession of Australian batsmen continued until Tim Paine (40* off 32 balls) and Nathan Coulter-Nile’s quickfire thirty from thirteen tried to put up resistance. But it was no use as the Aussie chase ended at one sixty eight for seven.
It was an even distribution of wickets amongst Indian bowlers with Pawan Negi being the pick of them as he took two for 35, while Dhawal Kulakarni also got two scalps giving away forty-three runs. One each went to Rahul Shukla (1-25), Harbhajan Singh (1-16), Irfan (1-18).
Pakistan foil Windies comeback
Pakistan had to be grateful for their skipper Younis Khan and opener Kamran Akmal who contributed 79 runs for fourth wicket following a top order collapse.
So Pakistan slumped to ten for three losing Sharjeel Khan, Sohaib Maqsood and Shoaib Malik cheaply when batting first. However, Akmal made a counter attacking knock before getting out on a well play cameo innings consisting of forty six runs from thirty one deliveries.
Both the former Pakistan captains, Shahid Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq were dismisse in quick succession by Younis too for boundary balls.
Younis batted steadily again, this time with lower-order batsman Aamer Yamin whose 34 off 18 runs partnership helped him before he was caught for a fast 65 off Fidel Edwards’ delivery as he got three wickets for 24 runs to(2)..
Left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn was similarly effective taking two wickets for twenty-six (26) runs.
The West Indies bowlers, however, had some hard times dealing with Yamin and Tanvir as both hit monstrous sixes in a mere 61-run stand that came up in just eight overs.
Tanvir scored an undefeated 33 off only 17 balls whereas Yamin belted forty from eighteen balls staying not out in order to take his team’s total to one hundred ninety-eight runs (198/8).
The West Indies top order including Dwayne Smith, Chris Gayle and Chadwick Walton all started well but failed to score big after getting starts of 26,22 and 19 respectively.
Sohaib Maqsood also got rid of Windies opener Darren Sammy after taking another opener Jason Mohammed’s wicket. He sent back Darren Sammy too at the early part of the match who managed only ten runs while putting seven on board himself.
Rayad Emrit played a cameo innings of twenty-nine from nine deliveries but it was not enough as they were all out for onehundred seventy eight runs (178) during the last four ballsof their innings..
Pakistan’s other wicket takers included Wahab Riaz (2-35) and Malik (2-26).
