Day 15 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup had two games in store for us as Australia faced a Scotland side who needed to win in order to qualify, and Pakistan took on Ireland in a dead rubber.
Australia v Scotland
In the first game of the day, it was Australia who came out victorious and closed the curtain on what has been an excellent T20 World Cup for Scotland. However, Richie Berrington and his men fought till the end, losing by five wickets with two balls remaining in the game.
After Scotland batted first, they put up a handsome total of 180, with Brandon McMullen doing the bulk of the scoring with his 60 from 34 balls. He was supported by the captain Berrington, who played an impressive 42 of 31 while opener George Munsey scored 35 in 23 deliveries.
Chasing this total, the Aussies struggled in the powerplay, losing both David Warner and Mitchell Marsh before the sixth over and having scored just 34 runs. However, Marcus Stoinin and Travis Head dug their side out of trouble after putting up 80 runs for the fourth wicket.
Eventually, Stoinis’ 59 of 29 and Head’s 68 of 49 proved to be the difference, as Australia won this game and recorded four straight wins in the tournament.
1st innings – 180/5 (Scotland in 20 overs)
2nd innings- 186/5 (Australia in 19.4 overs)
Ireland v Pakistan
Although this match didn’t have much riding on it, Pakistan were expected to come through fairly comfortably. However, that wasn’t the case after the Irish batters put on just 106 runs in the first innings.
Gareth Delany was the standout batter, scoring 31 in 19 deliveries, while Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi was the pick of the bowlers after he snapped up three wickets for 22 runs.
The chase was made rather tricky by the batters wearing green after the powerplay in which they lost two wickets. During the middle phase, Pakistan lost four wickets as their score went from 52 to 62 runs. Although matters were complicated, Abbas Afridi’s 17 and Babar Azam’s 32 helped their side get close.
The game needed a couple of big blows from Shaheen Afridi towards the end to help Pakistan over the line.
1st innings – 106/9 (Ireland in 20 overs)
2nd innings- 111/7 (Pakistan in 18.5 overs)
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