Double delight at WW wickets
ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day for the Super Eights game between Australia and Pakistan
Mohammad Hafeez wheels away in celebration after removing David Warner • Getty Images
First ball of his spell, Mitchell Starc ran in and hurled it in full. Mohammad Hafeez knew it would swing in, and shaped up to work it to leg. But he hadn't accounted for it changing direction so much. The ball curled in past his bat and caught him plumb in front.
Batsmen are finding new ways to fall to that man Shane Watson. Full toss on leg stump: Imran Nazir makes room, gets inside the line and swipes it straight to mid-off.
Australia had removed the Pakistan openers early and Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal were finding it difficult to get going. In the 11th over, Pat Cummins bounced Jamshed, who opened up and pulled him hard over deep square leg for six. The runs started to flow after that.
Pakistan became the first side in the tournament to get both the big Ws, Watson and Warner, cheaply. The magnitude of the strikes showed in the celebrations. After he trapped Watson lbw, Raza Hasan roared, ran towards extra cover, jumped high, and punched the air. After he trapped David Warner lbw, Hafeez ran all the way to square leg, bent his knees and repeatedly kept pumping his fists till his team-mates enveloped him.
Australia's cluelessness against the Pakistan spinners was summed up in the 11th over. Cameron White stood front-on in his crease and tried to scoop a fullish Hasan delivery over the wicketkeeper. He only managed to hit the lob the ball on to his helmet grill.
Abhishek Purohit is an editorial assistant at ESPNcricinfo