New Delhi: Pakistan’s dream run in the T20 World Cup 2021 came to an abrupt end as Australia went past the former champions with an over to spare in the semi-final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. A match that swung like a pendulum went right down to the wire with Australia needing 22 off the final two overs of the match.

With Shaheen Afridi going in to bowl the penultimate over, most people would have put their money on Pakistan but Matthew Wade had other ideas, taking the best bowler of the tournament to the cleaners. His three sixes in that over got Australia over the line but the turning point of the match was Hasan Ali dropping a not so difficult chance at the mid-wicket boundary in the third ball of the over.

The dropped catch gave Wade another life and to make matters worse it was followed by three consecutive sixes, ending Pakistan’s hope of getting to the finals of the T20 World Cup 2021.

After being put into bat first, Pakistan got off to a good start. Mohammad Rizwan again came to the party with a brilliant half-century but it was Fakhar Zaman’s 32-ball 55 that helped the former champions to reach a competitive total of 176.

Australia in reply got off to a poor start as Shaheen Afridi once again struck in his first over by removing the Australian captain Aaron Finch. David Warner looked in ominous touch before he was dismissed for 49 and at one point the Aussies were looking down the barrel, having lost half their side with still 81 runs to get.

Marcus Stoinis and Wade stitched together an unbeaten 81-run stand to take Australia to the final of the T20 World Cup where they will face New Zealand on Sunday.