Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature 13th over: New Zealand 90-3 (Williamson 36, Mitchell 22) After being there for 11 and a half overs, Kane Williamson hadn’t managed a single boundary (28 runs off 28 balls). He has now: Mohammad Wasim returns and his first delivery is swatted for six. Is it a pull? Is it a whip? It’s definitely a great shot, though it does make you wonder why Williamson waited so long before attempting anything like it. 12th over: New Zealand 81-3 (Williamson 28, Mitchell 21) Babar, given something to think about at last, goes back to pace and brings on Naseem Shah. NZ go back to getting ’em in ones and twos. The cameras give us some views of the SCG, those bright-green roofs glinting below a grey-blue sky. Of all the cricket grounds in all the world, this is the one where I would choose to watch my last game. 11th over: New Zealand 73-3 (Williamson 24, Mitchell 18) Mitchell is dancing round his crease, itching to go big. He cuts Shadab, uppishly, and somehow squeezes the ball between the two men at backward point. A much-needed four. And then another, as Mitchell waits till the last second before dashing down the track and playing a lofted straight drive. That’s 14 off the over. Reports of NZ’s demise may have been exaggerated. Updated at 08.59 GMT 10th over: New Zealand 59-3 (Williamson 23, Mitchell 5) Williamson is working it around, classy as ever, but he’s not worrying Pakistan. Nawaz’s second over is all singles until Daryl Mitchell goes down the track and manufactures a two. At the halfway stage, NZ are heading for 150 rather than 200, and Pakistan are heading for the final. 9th over: New Zealand 52-3 (Williamson 20, Mitchell 1) Plus, Pakistan keep taking wickets off the last ball of the over, which means they can whizz through the next one while the new batter plays himself in. This over from Shadab goes for just three singles, and NZ are in a spin: three overs of the slow stuff, 14 runs, one wicket. 8th over: New Zealand 49-3 (Williamson 18) So it’s spin at both ends, as so often in Sydney, and both spinners have already taken a wicket. Pakistan on top.
Wicket!! Phillips c&b Nawaz 6 (NZ 49-3)
The big one! Phillips tries to whip Nawaz’s slow left-arm to leg, but gets a thick leading edge and gives the bowler a Christmas gift of a catch. Updated at 08.55 GMT 7th over: New Zealand 44-2 (Williamson 14, Phillips 5) No sooner has Shadab pulled off that run-out than he has to come on to bowl his leg-breaks. No rest for the gifted. He keeps it tight apart from a googly that’s too short, allowing Phillips to late-cut for four. 6th over: New Zealand 38-2 (Williamson 13) So the powerplay ends with Pakistan ahead on points, but NZ avoiding the third wicket that so often spells doom. Shaun Pollock feels that the ball is keeping low, and a graphic backs him up – the average bounce has been about one ball diameter lower than in the other five games at the SCG, which may mean that 180 is a good score. Updated at 08.42 GMT
Wicket! Conway run out (Shadab) 21 (NZ 38-2)
Conway, seeing the need to go big, charges Rauf’s first ball and chips it for four, inside-out. Shot! But soon there’s a direct hit and the Pakistan players begin to celebrate … They’re right! The dangerous Conway dismissed by the dead-eye Shadab, proving Mel Jones’s point. Updated at 08.36 GMT 5th over: New Zealand 30-1 (Conway 14, Williamson 12) Another change as Afridi gives way to Mohammad Wasim. Some of the sense of theatre goes with Afridi, but Pakistan will still be happy enough. Five singles and a two: it’s as if the middle overs have started already. 4th over: New Zealand 23-1 (Conway 11, Williamson 8) The first bowling change from Babar Azam as Haris Rauf replaces Naseem Shah. Rauf has Conway’s number – he’s dismissed him four times for only 29 runs. Williamson, perhaps aware of this, takes more of the strike, which makes for a quiet over. The highlight is a straight push, more of a caress, for two – would have been four but for a good half-stop at mid-on. Mel Jones, on the boundary, says she feels the game could be decided by the fielding. She’s such a good commentator, confident and engaging. Here we go @TimdeLisle, with two teams I’d love to win the thing (if, well, you know). This should be a cracker, it’s just a shame the used pitches are going to make the toss so crucial. But if anyone’s going to be able to roll a team up top, it’s Pakistan. — Guy Hornsby (@GuyHornsby) November 9, 2022 3rd over: New Zealand 19-1 (Conway 10, Williamson 5) Afridi to Williamson: feels like a big moment. Williamson, usually so serene, plays a loose uppish drive, but it’s into the gap at extra cover and he picks up three. A couple of dots, then a couple of singles. Pakistan have bowled so well, yet it’s still been a run a ball. NZ need to get through the next three overs with only one more wicket, to set the stage for Glenn Phillips. 2nd over: New Zealand 14-1 (Conway 9, Williamson 1) At the other end, Naseem Shah starts strongly – line and length, dot dot dot. Conway whips one away for four, then comes very close to playing on as his back-foot dab flirts with the stumps. Then another four! It’s all happening. “No idea how the match will go,” says Alistair Connor, “but I’m backing our twirlers (I’m from NZ).” They’ve been so impressive. “My daughter went to work in /emigrated to (time will tell) Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. She is French but has lived in Scotland for the last six years. I suggested she should follow the creekit, as a factor of integration. She asked me for bullet points / conversation starters.” Brave woman. “My suggestion to her was, if she is presenting herself as a New Zealander, she’d best avoid the subject completely. If she’s being French, she can just let them explain it all to her. But her boyfriend’s mum is from County Down, so I suggested they should be Ireland fans.” Choices, choices. I’m hoping she lets them explain it all to her, then hits them with a killer stat. 1st over: New Zealand 6-1 (Conway 1, Williamson 1) So this over went four, wicket overturned, wicket … what we need now is a single or two. Kane Williamson and Devon Conway provide them, and then, finally, there is a plain old dot. What a start: instant drama.
Wicket! Allen LBW b Shaheen Shah Afridi 4 (NZ 4-1)
The first ball of the match is straight-driven for four by Finn Allen! But Afridi bites back with the second, a classic inswinger, and Marais Erasmus raises the finger. Reviewed and reprieved! There was an inside edge. Next ball, same again! No inside edge… It’s plumb! Updated at 08.08 GMT “Kia ora Tim,” says Graeme Simpson, “from a very nervous Aotearoa/New Zealand. Was on Eden Park with the lads after the 1992 semi as part of directing a doco on Marty Crowe.” Wow. “His brother, Jeff, was the interviewer, hence, Crowe on Crowe. (Including a question about the rumours about Martin’s personal life.) Some hard men in tears that afternoon. However, Martin held his composure, waved to the crowd, freeze frame, fade to black with Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms and credits. We’d only started in Christchurch earlier in the week where NZ badly lost their last pool game to the Pakistanis. TVNZ had scheduled the doco for the following Tuesday, so, no sleep for the next 48 hours… RiP Marty.” Absolutely. A shame he didn’t live to see NZ make a habit of reaching finals. Time for the anthems, and some body language. The Pakistan team sing theirs with belief, hand on heart. In the crowd, the cameras find hijabs and green wigs and broad smiles. The Kiwis sing theirs with belief too, stern-faced, arm in arm. The cameras don’t spot so many of their supporters.
Pitch: not looking its best
The pitch looks not so much worn as knackered. Shaun Pollock, out there as a pundit, says: “It’s jigsaw-puzzley, if you want to put it that way.” Polly, it’s you who wants to put it that way. And I’m struggling to see what you mean. Possibly this: the pitch is in pieces, and the players will have to put it together themselves.
Teams: both unchanged
Ch-ch-ch-changes? No thanks. NZ 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wkt), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Ish Sodhi, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Trent Boult. Pakistan 1 Mohammad Rizwan (wkt), 2 Babar Azam (capt), 3 Mohammad Haris, 4 Shan Masood, 5 Iftikhar Ahmed, 6 Mohammad Nawaz, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Mohammad Wasim, 9 Haris Rauf, 10 Naseem Shah, 11 Shaheen Shah Afridi. Updated at 07.45 GMT
NZ win toss and bat
Captains used to chase, but this tournament has changed all that. Babar Azam calls heads, it’s tails, and Kane Williamson has no hesitation in saying ‘“we’ll have a bat”. There have been six games at the SCG, and five have been won by runs not wickets, including both of New Zealand’s wins here.
Preamble
Hello everyone and welcome to the first semi-final of the 2022 T20 World Cup. In five hours’ time, either New Zealand or Pakistan will have booked their place in the final. On form in this tournament, it should be New Zealand – but on past form in knock-outs between these sides, they don’t stand a chance. NZ will lose because … (a) they’ve had three meetings with Pakistan in situations like this and lost the lot. (b) NZ, historically, are simply not as good at T20 as Pakistan, who lead them by 17 wins to 11, some way from the parity you might expect. (c) After their sorry start and sudden revival, it feels as if Pakistan are getting out their favourite moves again, the dance of the cornered tigers, 30 years on from the original. Pakistan will lose because … (a) those three previous knock-out games against NZ are distant history, the most recent being 15 years ago, which, in T20 terms, is basically Victorian times. (b) Babar Azam, usually so serene, has been having a nightmare, making scores of 0, 4, 4, 6…
