The wait is over as the showdown of the almost month-long marquee ICC T20 World Cup 2021 event heads to its summit clash with two neighboring nations, Australia and New Zealand, vying to lift their maiden World T20 championship titles in the grand finale of the tournament on Sunday (November 14) in Dubai.
After two dramatic run-chases in the semi-finals of this year’s T20 World Cup, the expectations are running sky-high from the Aussies and the Kiwis to put up an enthralling final show for the neutrals as both sides outplayed the top two favourites of the competition in Pakistan and England.
While the Aaron Finch-led side clinched a tightly-contested clash against Babar Azam’s Men in Green wherein they chased down a target of 177 in 19 overs courtesy of a heroic cameo by wicketkeeper-batter Matthew Wade, Kane Williamson & Co. outclassed Eoin Morgan’s England in almost a replica of a result as the Blackcaps won their semi-final by 5 wickets and 6 balls remaining, exactly the same margin of victory as the Aussies.
Legendary Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne has backed Australia to win their first-ever T20 World Cup title by beating familiar foes and backyard rivals New Zealand on Sunday.
Speaking in a short video on Twitter, Warne confidently predicted that Australia’s nail-biting finish in the semi-final has bought them enough momentum to clinch the Trans-Tasman battle in Dubai. The former leg-spin wizard remarked:
“It’s been a cracking tournament so far and how good were those two semifinals? Gotta feel for England and Pakistan but they were two ripping games. So congratulations to New Zealand and Australia for making it to the final.
I think I will go for Australia to lift their first ever T20 trophy after a thrilling win over Pakistan in the semi-final. After the way they finished I think they have got a lot of momentum,” said Warne.
Interestingly, in both the high-voltage semi-final matches, the last two overs had the exact same equation of 22 runs required and on both occasions, the teams needed more than 60 runs to chase in the last five overs but finished with an over to spare. Australia and New Zealand won almost identical games to reach the summit clash of the T20 WC.
Moreover, to highlight some more eerie similarities between the two semi-finals, whichever side won the toss, chose to bowl first. Also, the team that lost in both SFs, batted first and lost exactly 4 wickets. Not only that, the last over of the matches was bowled by the bowler who had bowled the first over of the innings too.
There’s ber little to separate between the two sides as both the teams from down under had similar success in the Super 12s group stage of the World T20 2021 too as the neighbouring countries had just lost one game in the tournament on their road to the final in Dubai.
