Pakistan batting coach Matthew Hayden delivered a rousing post-match speech applauding his team for their win over New Zealand in the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final, singling out a moment between Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan that stood out for him through the “sensational performance”.

On Wednesday, Pakistan completed a comfortable seven-wicket win to book a spot in Melbourne for the T20 World Cup final. The 153-run chase was led by a stellar opening partnership between Babar and Rizwan – statistically the most prolific T20I opening pair – who put on 105 runs in 12.3 overs to lay a solid platform. Speaking about the win inside the dressing room, Hayden pointed out how the camaraderie and partnership between the two openers was evident even before the chase began.

“I want to make special mention to a moment I saw at the start of play today, and that was Babar throwing balls to Rizzy [Rizwan],” Hayden said. “And I just thought – from an opening partnership point of view, that is exactly what this team requires moving forward now. It is just extraordinary that that couple decided to do that.

“Plenty of coaches around. But Babar showed that it wasn’t just about Babar, it was also about his mate at the other end.”

The comment was met with cheers and applause from the Pakistan camp.

It wasn’t just the Babar-Rizwan show; Pakistan’s bowling and fielding kept sustained pressure on New Zealand’s batters, restricting them to 152. The catching and ground fielding was consistently good, headlined by Shadab Khan’s direct hit to run out Devon Conway off the last ball of the powerplay.

“Way before that, it was an extraordinary bowling effort [broken by applause] and while there were 22-23 twos conceded, I can’t remember one ‘two’ coming from no effort,” Hayden said. “Just genuine good running [from NZ]. Your efforts on the field, and your athletic ability to the ball, and some of the classic saves we saw tonight – classic run outs [Shadab direct hit] – but even before that run out, the fielding effort, where you dived, got up, ran, that’s the sort of stuff that wins matches.”

“You have to opt-in to big matches. Everyone at this stage would go ‘Pakistan, you have done a great job. Well done, it doesn’t matter’. But our efforts, and our collective partnerships and our belief in each other mean that we are actually opting even more in. Because that’s what it takes a championship, that’s what it takes to win a semi-final”.

Hayden went on to applaud the team for being “flawless” in all departments, concluding the speech with: “It was a complete performance. And I think the world is going to see a lot more of that in four days time, so well done”.

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