Pakistan vs New Zealand, T20 World Cup Highlights: PAK thrash NZ by 7 wickets, reach first final since 2009

Back of a length from Naseem for the fourth ball of the over, Conway swivels around and pulls it to the boundary. 

What a first over that was from Shaheen. Williamson comes in at No.3 and both him and Conway just about got a single each out of the rest of the over. Afridi had been injured for much of this tournament but he seems to be at his destructive best now. 

Now then, this is much closer and it seems Afridi has got his man with the third ball of the match. This is a vicious first over from Shaheen. Erasmus gives it out again, Allen goes for the review again but this time it is clearly in hope more than anything else. Late swing from Afridi, Allen plays all around it. No inside edge this time, he plays all around it and the ball would have hit the lower halves of middle and leg stumps. Erasmus gives a little fist bump to Richad Illingworth after raising his finger again. 

Allen lbw b Shaheen Shah Afridi 4 (3), New Zealand 4/1 in 0.3 overs

Well a bit of a howler from Marais Erasmus but what a start we have had to this game. He raises his finger to an LBW shout from the Pakistan players and Allen takes a review straightaway. Replays show there was a big inside edge on that and even if there wasn't, it is hard to see how that would have hit the stumps. 

Afridi sends it in full and swinging and Allen pumps it down the ground for a four off the first ball of the match. What a start that is for New Zealand. 

Finn Allen and Devon Conway come out to open for New Zealand. Shaheen Afridi has the ball in his hands.

There are a lot of empty patches in the stands but there is also a long que outside the stadium of fans trying to get in. The stadium is going to jam-packed eventually. Here come the players, meanwhile. 

Right here are the two teams, the stage is set. It is the T20 World Cup semi-finals folks! First up is Pakistan's national anthem after which comes England's. 

Williamson had a woeful tournament, and indeed a woeful year, with the bat before New Zealand's last Super 12 match against Ireland. He played the kind of innings that one has come to expect from Kane Williamson in T20s, slow in the beginning and a major acceleration towards the end. He ended up scoring 61 off 35 balls, scoring five fours and three sixes as New Zealand won the match by 35 runs. 

“Even we would have batted first. Same team. We are confident as a team and we'll look to carry the momentum. They have quality players, we'll try to be calm. We are trying to focus on this game.”

“We are gonna have a bat. Used surface, not much grass on it. We're going with the same team. Same pitch but different I reckon. It's important we adjust to those changing conditions and assess quickly. There are a few unknowns, important we stick to our plans. Our focus is on this game, what we want to do here and really try and express ourselves with the cricket that we've been playing.”

Mohammad Rizwan(w), Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi

Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Kane Williamson(c), Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult

Kane Williamson wins the toss and New Zealand will bat first. Both sides are unchanged. 

Shaun Pollock expects Pakistan to find some reverse swing but the pitch will be two-paced. Let's see what the captains make of that in the toss. Here they are. 

He has emerged as a hero for New Zealand in this tournament. He smacked a quickfire 17 against Ireland in their previous match, before which he smashed 62 off 36 against England and 104 off 64 against Sri Lanka before that. That century of his was also scored in Sydney.

Robin Uthappa has suggested on ESPNCricinfo that it might be a good idea for Pakistan to demote either Babar or Rizwan down the order since their approach is just too slow for T20 cricket. The opening pair have truely struggled in this tournament and, in many ways, it is their extraordinarily slow opening partnership that provided Pakistan with a challenge during their chase against Bangladesh. 

Some people like recalling this, some don't hoping that they don't jinx it in any way. But, back then, Imran Khan's side had their backs against the wall, they were almost eliminated and then somehow they snuck through to the semi-finals where they faced, you guessed it, New Zealand. The other semi-finals had England, like it does this time, only that they were facing South Africa and not India. So those worrying about this being too similar a situation and thus getting jinxed, don't worry, the team that choked to give Pakistan their chance, only choked in the semi-finals back then and their arch-rivals weren't even in the final four. It's all totally different. 

The SCG has been good for the batters, despite the fact that bowlers have received significant help from the pitch. We will see what it looks like in a few minutes when the pitch report comes in. 

Pakistan went into their final Super 12 match needing to beat Bangladesh and then basically hoping that India lose their next match against Zimbabwe. That was, of course, the most realistic thing to hope for since the in-form South Africa were playing minnows Netherlands earlier in the day. However, the Proteas collapsed like a heap of cards and all of a sudden, both Bangladesh and Pakistan had a chance to go through. Pakistan were clearly the better team on the day and won the match by five wickets to seal their semi-final spot. 

Shaheen, who has been criticised lately for his fitness, bagged a four-wicket haul vs Bangladesh. Fans have criticised PCB for bringing in a pacer, who hasn't totally recovered from his injury! But his performance on Sunday, shows that more is yet to come!

Pakistan team mentor Hayden warned NZ of a possible big innings from Babar. He said, "As we know about the weather, when there's a lull there is also a storm that follows. So look out rest of the world."

Ahead of the match, NZ captain Williamson praised Pakistan and said, "They've got an outstanding pace attack. They've been playing some good cricket, they have experienced players and match winners".

The probability of precipitation stands at 55 percent in the morning. There could be a light shower during the game but as the day progresses the rain probability reduces to only one percent in the evening. The temperature is expected to be around 23 degrees and as low as 13 degrees.

Both sides have faced each other 28 times, with Pakistan winning 17 of them. Pakistan have also won four of their six clashes in previous editions of the tournament!