By Fakir Hassen, IANS
Johannesburg : South African cricket fans love nothing more than see Australia lose, even if the Kangaroos are not playing against the home side.
This was quite evident again at the Wanderers here Tuesday when Pakistan beat the team from Down Under by six wickets in the Twenty20 World Championships Group F clash.
It could have been any cricket stadium in Lahore or Karachi rather than the Wanderers as the crowd cheered loudly each time Pakistan brought their total closer to the target of 165 the Australians set, and eventually secured their place in the semi-finals.
Australia, beaten by Zimbabwe in the early stages of the tournament as well, will now have to defeat Sri Lanka in Cape Town Thursday if they want to figure in the top four.
For Pakistan, it was a second consecutive day of pleasing fans with some great batting and fielding against Sri Lanka and Australia, who had crossed swords in the World Cup final earlier this year in the Caribbean.
There was still some scepticism though, especially in the Afrikaans press here, about whether Pakistan could continue this winning streak in the semi-finals.
“Stability and Pakistani cricket are as synonymous words as Iraq and peace, yet it does look like the winds of change have been blowing favourably for Pakistan,” wrote the Afrikaans daily Beeld.