Hasan Ali’s spill in the deep off Matthew Wade turns tight contest on its head

The moment capped a difficult day – and tournament – in general, for Hasan, who had just conceded 15 runs in the previous over. Wade went on to hit Shaheen for three sixes off the next three balls as Australia sealed a sensational heist.

“When you give teams like Aus a chance they take the match away from you,” Babar said after the game. “If that catch that Hasan Ali dropped had been taken, maybe the result would have been different. As a player, you have to be on your toes and avail any opportunity you get. We made a mistake and it cost us the match.”

It was Pakistan’s first defeat after cruising through the group stages with five wins out of five, including a famous ten-wicket win over India and a five-wicket victory over their fellow qualifiers New Zealand, who went on to complete a successful run-chase against England in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday to book their own place in Sunday’s final.

“The way we played the tournament and gelled together as a team, I am very satisfied with my team’s efforts as captain,” Babar said. “We’ll try and learn from our mistakes and come back stronger. When you play a big tournament so well, it’s good but you have to perform on the day. You can’t relax in any department.”

“We’ll try and continue our efforts; how we performed gave us confidence and we’ll try and build on from that,” he said. “The roles we had defined for everyone, they executed brilliantly, and you saw that from us on the field. The way the crowd supported us was very enjoyable. We always enjoy ourselves here and I’m thankful to the fans back home for supporting us.”