Can Pakistan defeat Australia in T20 world cup semi final ?

England's cricketers were on fire in yesterday’s game against New Zealand. They had the support of every English cricket fan bundled up with the entire nation of Pakistan.  Every child, man and women in Pakistan were glued to their TV cheering for England to win. With the absence of Kevin Pietersen, it seemed a tough task but England delivered a comprehensive win and with it sent New Zealand packing and Pakistan moves on to the semi final. 

Tim Bresnan’s disciplined bowling restricted New Zealand to 149.  England looked in trouble at one point but Eoin Morgan the new found hero of England cricket come to the rescue. Morgan  slapped Styris one-handed for a massive six, he made it look way too easy. Luke Wright joined the party by spanking Ian Butler for two slog-swept fours in consecutive deliveries. Before you know it England were 117 for 4 by the 13^th over.

To keep it short and interesting; England won and in conclusion, New Zealand and South Africa are granted permission to go back to their normal lives. 

England has done double to Pakistan; first they defeated Pakistan to kill the defending champion’s hopes to repeat the act again and then by giving Pakistan a lifeline by defeating New Zealand.  As ever it is very hard to right off the men in green; their performance against South Africa was nothing short of fairytale. This is the second world cup in a row where Pakistan eliminated South Africa. 

Now that Pakistan is moving to the semi final, the streets in Lahore and Karachi were crowed with fans who were holding the English flags along with the flags of Pakistan.   This is what happened in 1992 world cup but England’s helping hand came back to haunt them; is history repeating itself?  In T20 world cup in 2009; Pakistan were given a lifeline in the last minute and capitalized it by becoming the world champions. 

This is no secret; Pakistan always plays with two teams, a brilliant cohesive 11’s who will rattle the best of the best and self-destructive juvenile force which will lose to Ireland.

Encouragingly, Pakistan's bowling has returned to form in the last two games and they did well to contain good teams. Even more impressive, the fielding has become helpful.  Shahid Afridi is finally thinking with his heart and impulses; a more natural method for his captaincy. He also has found form and is leading from the front with both the ball and the bat.  

Pakistan will have to not only show up with their best team but they might need 22 players instead of 11. The way Australia is playing Afridi and the co will be clear underdogs but that means they have nothing to lose.   Pakistan does have one more x-factor in Hammad Azam and Afridi needs to bring him in. There is no way Hammad can do any worse in bowling or batting than Hafeez. He can be the Inzamam-ul-Haq of this T20 World Cup and play innings of substance like he did in U19WC and like Inzaman did in the only 50 overs world cup Pakistan won.

Question at the end still remains; Can Pakistan defeat Australia?  Logic says “not a chance” but Pakistani cricket defies logic and can never be fully written off. Pakistan now has the momentum and the lady luck is clearly backing the underdogs but Miss Luck is going against the mighty Australia who has Mr. Talent on their side.  Only the time will tell if Miss Lady Luck overcomes Mr. Talent…just one more day and its all over.