Australia overpower Pakistan to book a semi-final spot - The 3rd Quarterfinal of the World Cup 2015 saw the host nation Australia take on the challenge from Pakistan. It was a match where both the teams had the capacity to beat each other on any given day. It was a tough one for the home side as Pakistan has been a side which can beat any side on their day while get beaten by any side on any day. In this match Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first.
The openers failed to give the team a good start as they soon were in pavilion. In the 6th ball the team lost both their openers and was struggling at 24/2. Haris Sohail and Misbah-ul-Haq took the responsibility and started building the innings for the team. They together took the team to a score of 97 when Misbah after scoring 34 runs lost his wicket. Soon Haris too was in pavilion after playing a good knock of 41. The team was at 112/4 in 27th over when Haris departed. The middle order failed to build on the innings as each batsman played a 20 run knock and failed to convert the start to a big innings. The Pakistan team was able to post only 213 runs in 50 overs. Josh Hazlewood took 4 wickets for the team.
Pakistan needed a splendid bowling performance in order to go through to the semi-finals and they started off well taking the wicket of Aaron Finch. Sohail Khan took the wicket in the 3rd over and Australia too had a bad start. David Warner too lost his wicket in the 9th over after scoring 24 runs. The match gained life in the 11th over when Michael Clarke got out leaving his team to a score of 59/3. It seemed the Pakistan side was coming back in the match but Steven Smith and Shane Watson had different plans. They played a mature knock to take their team out of trouble. Smith after scoring 65 runs lost his wicket and Australians were at 148/4 in the 27th over. Watson continued his innings along with Glenn Maxwell as Australia reached the target in 34th over. Watson scored 64 while Maxwell scored 44 runs. Hazlewood was named as the man of the match as Australians booked their seat in the semi-final to fight it out against India.