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Pakistan strode into the semifinals with aplomb

The slide down the hill triggered by babes Bangladesh that threw them into the vortex of uncertainty with three consecutive defeats, was reversed by a tremendous team effort that brought their star batsman a much needed hundred and their star spinner a rare achievement - a hattrick, the second in World Cup after Chetan Sharma's against New Zealand in 1987. On the day Pakistan looked a totally transformed team as they knew this was their last train to the next important station. It was their streetcar named ambition which they could not afford to miss.

The ``crunch match'' that Wasim Akram expected against Zimbabwe turned out to be a cakewalk for the Pakistanis.

The Oval has been an important ground for Pakistan cricket since 1954. In that wet summer the Pakistanis on their first ever tour of England wrote history by defeating the Englishmen under Len Hutton on this ground - a feat which has not been surpassed by any cricketing nation. And on Friday they won a crucial match of the '99 World Cup that takes them to the last four stage of the tourney again on their happy hunting ground. This time the chips were down and the stakes were high.

Winning the toss helped alot and a right decision to back it up with batting almost took the Pakistanis across the halfway mark. The normally mediocre Zimbabwe attack was rendered further docile by the sore arm of Neil Johnson, one of the stars of the competition and a dropped catch by Campbell that gave Saeed Anwar a new lease of life made Zimbabwe's task formidable. The normally dour-looking Wasti was on a roll scoring freely proving his critics wrong. We may have a case of a Pakistani Rahul Dravid on our hands.

Despite a healthy run-rate the middle order collapse was triggered by the captain himself but Afridi, batting lower in the order, and Saqlain Mushtaq took the score to a point where the Pakistanis could feel safe. Anwar's ton came in the right time and this would instill confidence in himself and in the ability of his team.

The writing on the wall appeared when Shoaib Akhtar ripped through the defence of Andy Flower early in the innings. The rest was a sombre story of meek surrender. But Johnson stood alone in the ruins with another of his scintillating display of strokes. The bowling was good but better was the fielding.

Saqlain Mushtaq, already in the top ten, brought off a spectacular hattrick on his home ground (almost), the second in World Cup. His first two victims fell identically to Moin Khan, whose tally of scalps also improved and the last one was helped by Pommie Mbangwa himself. This was a tremendous achievement by a spinner who is acclaimed by experts as one of the best in the business today. Many congratulations to Saqlain Mushtaq.