Chappell- Pakistan lucky to be in semis

by EZRA STUARTin St LuciaFORMER AUSTRALIA captain Ian Chappell believes Pakistan are “fortunate” to reach the semi-final stage of the World Twenty20 Championships after a patchy performance in the tournament.The defending champions lost their first two Super Eight matches, but sneaked into the semis due to a superior net run-rate after defeating South Africa in a decisive match on Monday.Pakistan will oppose unbeaten Australia today in the second men’s semi-final at 11:30 a.m. at the Beausejour Cricket Ground.“Having seen the absolute rubbish that Pakistan have played throughout the summer in Australia, I’m surprised that they’ve got this far,” Chappell said in an interview with Sanjay Manjrekar on the cricinfo website.“They’ve got this far mainly because of the mediocrity of others. They haven’t got there through having done anything great themselves, they’ve got there through other teams’ failings,” he noted.“Australia have absolutely hammered Pakistan for the last few months. I think the Australians are so far into the minds of the Pakistan players, it [an upset] would be a monumental turnaround and the biggest boil-over,” Chappell added.But Chappell said he really would like to see Australia being challenged.“I am hoping Pakistan somehow get themselves mentally right to challenge Australia. One, it will be terrific for the tournament and two, I think Australia need it. They need to be challenged.“I wouldn’t be 100 per cent comfortable if I’m Michael Clarke, going into the final – basically we got there unchallenged. You want to have a bit of a threat somewhere along the line,” Chappell reasoned.“I’m not talking about a threat from Bangladesh because you pretty well know in your own mind that you’re going to overcome Bangladesh. But when you get a threat from a major team, you’ve got to work really hard to get back into it,” he added.