Having started strongly, Australia looked on track to chase the total down comfortably. But the Pakistan bowlers had other plans. Ali Raza removed Sam Konstas to end the 33-run opening stand, and soon Australia were 59 for 4. Harry Dixon and Oliver Peake took the side past 100 before Arafat Minhas caused another collapse, removing Dixon and Tom Campbell. The chase then got tense when Raza added three more scalps to his tally. At that point, Australia needed 16 from 24 balls with one wicket left.
“We fought so hard,” Weibgen said. “Every time we thought we were nearly there on top, we lost a wicket, but we just kept fighting. Those partnerships, a few contributions through the middle there. Seventeen-year-old Oli Peake – unbelievable – showed such maturity for such a young bloke. Everyone contributed really well.
“[I was] never in doubt. Had full faith in Vids [Vidler] and Raf to get the job done. A lot of emotions, to be honest. I was quite nervous. I still don’t know really what happened, but it was awesome.”
“I think we were short of 10-20 runs, but we put our 100% effort,” Baig said. “We played well, we fought well but Australia played very well. Our boys throughout the tournament were brilliant [and] our bowling was quite well in the tournament.”
* 0900 GMT, Feb 9, 2024 The earlier version said Straker missed three games leading up to the semi-final. The error has been corrected.