15th & 16th Matches Super 10's AUS V IND & BAN V PAK

Pakistan 190 for 5 (Shehzad 111*, Razzak 2-20) beat Bangladesh 140 for 7 (Shakib 38, Gul 3-30, Ajmal 2-20) by 50 runs

Ahmed Shehzad pummeled Pakistan's first ever T20 century, propelling his side to a 50-run win over Bangladesh and setting up a virtual quarterfinal against West Indies on Tuesday. 

Shehzad punished some ordinary bowling from Bangladesh's seamers - he scored 87 off 39 balls against them - to ensure Pakistan didn't suffer any long-term effects from a mid-innings dip, when they lost three wickets for 28 runs in 29 balls.

With Shahid Afridi tonking 22 off 9 balls late in the innings, Pakistan set Bangladesh 191 to win. Tamim Iqbal and Anamul Haque made a decent start, but Bangladesh's innings disintegrated after both fell in the space of nine balls to leave them 36 for 2 in the sixth over.

In the next 34 balls, Bangladesh lost two more wickets to the spinners and didn't find the boundary even once. 

With 135 needed from 52, they weren't going to get anywhere near the target, even if Shakib Al Hasan and Nasir Hossain gave the Shere Bangla National Stadium a handful of opportunities to exercise their lungs. 

The contest had long ended, and Australia's players, waiting for their match against India, watched on resignedly as their semi-final hopes slowly evaporated.

This process may have begun soon after Shehzad started feasting on Bangladesh's quicker bowlers. His method against them was to set himself up early, moving around his crease just as the bowler entered his delivery stride before finding a stable base by the time of release. 

He got into a couple of outlandish positions - he missed a paddle off Al-Amin from way outside off stump, and took a single off a leading edge after walking halfway down the pitch to Mashrafe Mortaza - but prospered when he set himself up in a semi-open position with a small jump across the stumps. From there, he had room to swat the length ball over midwicket or take an extra stride forward and carve the ball over extra cover.

Both these shots made an early appearance as he took three fours and a six in Mashrafe's second over and motored to 29 off 13. Pakistan were 34 for no loss after three overs.

Spin came on for the first time, and Bangladesh immediately pulled things back. Shakib Al Hasan and Abdur Razzak, the two left-arm spinners, conceded just 20 runs off the next four overs, which also produced the wicket of Kamran Akmal via a top-edged sweep.

After one over of pace from Al-Amin - which went for 11, including a sweetly timed six over cover from Shehzad - spin returned from both ends. Pakistan lost two wickets in two overs.

Razzak had Mohammad Hafeez stumped, beating him for length with a quicker one and surprising him with big turn. Till then, both he and Shakib had skidded it through on an off-and-middle line, denying the right-handers room. In the next over, Umar Akmal was caught at point slashing Mahmudullah against the turn.

At the 12-over mark, Pakistan were 88 for 3, with Shehzad on 56 and Shoaib Malik on 9 off 11. The three spinners, between them, had bowled eight overs and picked up three for 40.

On came seam once more, in the form of Ziaur Rahman, bowling in the early 120s, just the sort of pace Shehzad liked: quick enough to come nicely on to the bat, but still giving him enough time to line the bowler up. The over went for 22, with Shehzad cutting two fours behind point and shoveling two sixes over midwicket. Then came the only bad over of spin, Malik striking Mahmudullah for successive fours off a full-toss and a wide half-volley, before Shakib gave away seven in the 15th, leaving Pakistan 130 for 3.

Mashrafe's third over produced 16, including five wides from a ball that slipped miles - in cricketing units - down the leg side and two fours from Shehzad. After he struck the second, Mushfiqur seemed to suggest to Mashrafe that he bowl more slower balls, with a gesture approximating an offbreak.

At the start of the 19th over, Mushfiqur had one more over from his main offspinner, Mahmudullah, and also had the option of using Nasir Hossain. Shakib, who had just completed his quota, had dismissed Malik in his final over to finish with figures of 1 for 21. The spinners, overall, had taken four wickets and conceded 65 runs in 66 balls.

Instead of Mahmudullah or a part-timer, Mushfiqur brought back Mashrafe, who had gone for 39 in three overs. Cue the biggest over of the Pakistan innings. Shehzad pulled his first ball for six and was caught in the deep off a no-ball before Afridi joined in the fun with two sixes in two balls over extra cover.

A boundary off the last ball from Shehzad took the total for the over to 24. It took Pakistan to 180 with one over left. The spinners had kept Bangladesh in the match, till this point. Now, even before they had begun their innings, they were more or less out of it. 


India 159 for 7 (Yuvraj 60) beat Australia 86 (Ashwin 4-11, Mishra 2-13) by 73 runs

We've been expecting you, Mr Singh. Many an India fan wanted Yuvraj Singh out because he had been plodding and prodding around this tournament even though he took most wickets and scored most runs for India between the two World Twenty20s. India, though, persisted with him, even giving him an extra chance at the expense of Shikhar Dhawan who made way for Ajinkya Rahane who simply had to be tried. 

Yuvraj struggled here again, reaching 13 off 21 before he exploded to end up with 60 off 42, showing just why MS Dhoni has shown so much faith in him. That innings provided a middling innings the acceleration it needed, after which R Ashwin's wily spin triggered an almighty collapse from Australia, who were already out of the tournament and weren't quite there in the chase.

Pakistan's win over Bangladesh earlier in the day had already knocked Australia out, but India still had a lot of interest in this match. 

All their previous wins had come winning the toss and bowling first, so they wanted to bat first and also wanted to play around with their combination a little. Rahane's inclusion and Mohit Sharma's were the decisions made before the toss, and even though Dhoni finally lost a toss - his first in 13 internationals - India got their wish when George Bailey inserted them in.

India's worst first 10 overs of the tournament followed as Rohit Sharma fell early, and Rahane and Virat Kohli failed to convert starts. Suresh Raina didn't look at home either, and at 66 for 4 in the 12th over, India were struggling for the first time in the tournament. 

Yuvraj had only just about start timing the ball, and in the next over Brad Hodge provided him a long hop to get away a bit. To bowl the 14th came on James Muirhead. Australia's spinners had suffocated India by then, conceding just 40 in seven overs.

This time, though, the legspinner missed his length two balls in a row. You couldn't got away with that against the vintage Yuvraj. You couldn't get away with that against this Yuvraj either. He sent them both sailing over midwicket for sixes. He had seen blood now. Some of his silken yet brutal shots came out in the end, most notable of which was his movement away from the stumps to get under a full ball outside leg and send it inside-out over long-off for six.

All of a sudden, the bowlers were the ones fumbling, not sure where to ball because missing the areas even by inches resulted in sixes. Seventy runs came in five overs starting with the 14th, and even though Yuvraj didn't finish off in style he had given India what looked a fighting total, especially given the form of India's attack.

The only problem with the total was you had to make allowance for the fact that India were up against a side that had nothing to lose. It showed in how Aaron Finch threw his arms at the first ball of the chase, and got four for it. However, Australia were too reckless and India too disciplined for this to become a blitz of any sort. The daredevilry of a side that was on its way out was all there, but the execution wasn't. After India had bowled a few tight overs at the top, keeping them down to 19 for 1 in four overs, it was all six or out.

Yes, there were five sixes, but there were five outs doing that as Ashwin spun his way to the best figures by an Indian spinners in Twenty20 internationals, and Australia crashed to their third-worst defeat. Now if the New Zealand-Sri Lanka match is not washed out in the other group, India will face South Africa in the semi-final.