Tony Becca
THE ICC World Twenty20 championship is far from over an any team, of those left in contention, can still win it, Australia, the early favourites, the world Test and 50-overs champions from Down Under, are in trouble, and mainly so because of Pakistan's spin bowling all-rounder, Shahid Afridi.
Boasting a batting line-up of Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden - the two hard-hitting left-handers at the top of the order, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Michael Hussey, Brad Hodge and Michael Clarke, and a bowling attack led by pacers Brett Lee and Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken and Mitch Johnson - two big right-handers and two left-handers, Australia are strong. In fact, they are very strong.
As good as they are, however, and as strong as they are, the mighty Australia, who fell to lowly Zimbabwe in the first round of the championship, will have to defeat Sri Lanka tomorrow in order to make it to the semi-finals.
The reason for that is that they lost to Pakistan on Tuesday to fall to one from two in the second round, and despite the brilliant batting for captain Shoaib Malik, 52 not out, and Misbah-ul-Haq, 66 not out, who carried them to 165 for four off 19.4 overs replying to Australia's 164 for nine, the man who set up the victory was undoubtedly Afridi - the legspinner who started the championship with four for 19 off his four overs, including two wickets in his first over, against Scotland, the man who picked up two wickets in the tie and the loss to India after a bowl-off, and the man who, on Monday, nailed Sri Lanka with three for 18 off his four overs.
No big thing
As far as statistics go, Afridi's one for 35 off four overs was no big thing, neither was Mohammad Hafeez's one for 31 off his four and definitely not so when compared with Sohail Tanvir's three for 31 off his four overs.
With Australia going well at 80 for two in the ninth over, however, with captain Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds batting beautifully, it was the spin of Afridi and Hafeez, and more so the baffling two-way spin, the tempting, deceptive flight and the varying pace of Afridi that mesmerised both Ponting and Symonds, cut them down, and scrambled the brains of Australia's other batsmen.
After hopping to 136 for two off 14.5 overs against England and to 124 for one off 13.5 overs against Bangladesh, Australia's batsmen were bubbling with confidence.
After a few overs from Afridi and Hafeez and more so from Afridi, however, they pushed and plodded, they swung and missed and they were exposed and helpless like sitting ducks.
After the pair of batsmen had smashed Afridi for 14 runs in his previous over, the legspinner returned, adjusted his length, and he was like a magician.
Safe after appeal
Ponting, pushing forward, was beaten with the first two deliveries, Ponting, stretching forward, beaten through the air and making a desperate effort to stay in his crease, escaped when the third umpire ruled him safe after an appeal for a stumping and Ponting escaped a stumping chance when he went down the pitch, was again beaten through the air, and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal failed to stump.
That resulted in one bye, Symonds took a wild swing at the next delivery and was bowled and Michael Hussey managed to keep out the last delivery.
At the end of the over, Australia were 80 for three off nine overs.
A few overs later, Hafeez, bowling offspin, bowled Ponting at 92 for four in the 12th over, and Australia, big, bad Australia, never recovered.
The spin of Afridi, and to a lesser extent that of Hafeez, left Australia so dizzy and reduced them to such ordinary mortals that they appeared still affected by it even when they were in the field.
Australia's bowling, for the first time in a long time and like that of the West Indies, was ordinary. Their fielding was even worse.
