Coach Justin Langer on Friday said Australia will come out with a “mindset” of winning the Twenty20 World Cup final against New Zealand regardless of the all-important toss factor. The flip of the coin has weighed heavily in the tournament staged in the United Arab Emirates with Dubai – venue of Sunday’s final – witnessing 11 wins out of 12 matches for the team batting second.
Australia became the latest to win after opting to bowl first against Pakistan on Thursday when they chased down 177 with one over and five wickets to spare in the second semifinal.
“Finchy actually thought about batting last night because it was a big final but people talked him out of it,” Langer told reporters.
“Can’t deny the statistics. In the final, you know how close it got last night, it could have gone either way. Very important we have the mindset whether we bat first or bowl first that we can win from any situation.”
Australia were in trouble at 96/5 in their chase when Marcus Stoinis (40) and Matthew Wade (41) put on an unbeaten stand of 81 to halt Pakistan’s juggernaut of five wins in the Super 12 stage.
The left-handed Wade, a wicketkeeper-batsman, smacked pace ace Shaheen Shah Afridi for three straight sixes to close the game in the 19th over.
Langer hailed the team’s “fearless” approach as he talked of Stoinis hitting a six off Shadab Khan one ball after the leg-spinner took down Glenn Maxwell.
“When Marcus Stoinis – the ball after the wicket – hit the six off the leggie, that’s what you call fearless cricket,” said Langer.
“And if you are going to win this tournament we have got to continue on with the way we played Bangladesh (in a group game when they chased won 74 in 6.2 overs), bat first or second, that fearless or aggressive batting is going to be crucial.”
