Shahid Afridi or http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754, however, has yet to win this prestigious title but are anticipating it after coming so far.
Ever since the World Cup’s inception in 1975, the host nation has yet to win this coveted trophy. History, however, is all set to be either rewritten or to repeat itself on 2nd April.
Three teams from the subcontinent persevered in reaching the semi finals when they competed against tournament favourites- Australia, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 and England, all of whom were previously knocked out. These three were ranked to be in the semi finals with former World Cup Champion, Australia was predicted to be in the finals at least.
Here are the highlights of the quarter final encounters among the eight teams and their performances.
Pakistan vs. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 was at the top of Pool ’A’ after winning five matches and losing one, they gained 10 points with a net run rate of +0.758. The West Indian team was at the bottom of pool ‘B’, they won three games, lost three, earned six points with a net run rate of +1.066.
The first quarter final was played on 23rd, March at Mirpur, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shivnarine-Chanderpaul-c90073 was the highest scorer with an unbeaten 44 runs.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 was the star in that match as he grabbed four wickets followed by Mohammad Hafeez and Saeed Ajmal who each claimed a wicket.
Pakistan achieved the target by scoring 113 runs without loss in 20.5 overs. Hafeez and Kamran Akmal remained unbeaten at 61 and 47 respectively.
Pakistan won the match comfortably by 10 wickets.
India vs. Australia
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 ended without any result due to rain.
Australia was unbeaten in their pool matches until they appeared in the last encounter against Pakistan at Colombo on 19th http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 remained victorious in the last 34 encounters of the World Cup, but their superiority soon after crumbled, as did their confidence. They were unable to stabilize themselves before their final encounter against host India on 24th March at Ahmadabad. This too was lost by five wickets. Ricky Ponting was unable to become the first ever captain to lift the trophy for the third time consecutively.
Australia posted a hard fought 260 runs in the allotted 50 overs for the loss of six wickets. Ricky Ponting played a captain’s innings and scored 104 runs from 118 balls with a six and seven four, while Brad Haddin shared 53 runs.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ravichandran-Ashwin-c84208, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh took two wickets each.
India chased the target easily by scoring 261 runs in 47.4 overs for the loss of five wickets, Sachin Tendulkar top scored with 53 runs followed by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gautam-Gambhir-c58623 who scored 50 runs.
Four Australian bowlers took a wicket each.
To be continued in Part-2
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