In 2016 World T20 Pakistan are once again depending on results of others like they were doing in 2010 World T20 West Indies and 2012 World T20 Sri Lanka. This time Pakistan hope that first Australia lose to them, and then beat India. In the meanwhile Pakistan also need to have a better Net Run-Rate as compared to both of them.
Australia had also done similar favour to Pakistan in 1992 World Cup when they were out of the tournament anyway but they defeated West Indies. If West Indies had won that game, Pakistan would have been ousted but Pakistan got through to the Semifinals and won the World Cup.
Pakistan team would have been in much more comfortable position if they had won New Zealand match where they were 89/2 in 10 overs while chasing 181, but they let their chances slip and scored just 69 in last 10 overs. But similar thing had happened in 2010 World T20 as well. Pakistan were chasing 134 runs target against New Zealand and could score just 132, losing the game by just one run.
On that occasion Pakistan needed 3 results to qualify for the Semifinals. I.e Pakistan could only qualify for the semifinals if England defeated South Africa, Pakistan defeated South Africa and then England again defeated New Zealand. Miraculously it all happened and Pakistan reached the Semifinals.
Even in 2012 World T20 Pakistan were in trouble as they lost the Super 8 game against India. Pakistan had to make sure that they beat Australia (which turned out to be possible once again) and then had to hope that South Africa did not lose to India by more than 30 runs. Once again, against all odds, every result went in Pakistan’s favour and it got through to the semifinals.
In 2016 World T20 Australia have not performed well in two games they have played in this tournament so far. Against New Zealand they were unable to chase 142 runs target and fell 8 runs short. Even against Bangladesh they were in trouble as they won by just 3 wickets with only 9 balls remaining. It could have been even closer if Bangladesh had not missed few chances.
Pakistan can beat Australia as their bowling attack is not as strong as it used to be one year back, but we cannot surely say that Australia will beat India in the last game. India were very close to a defeat against Bangladesh as the latter were only 2 runs away from win but they missed the chance and lost three wickets off last three balls. Equation would have been simple for us if Bangladesh had won but now Pakistanis will have to pray for Australia against India.
