Pakistan have one foot in the semi-finals of the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 after a six-wicket victory over Australia in the Super Eights.
A solid if unspectacular batting display had set Pakistan a target of 165 for victory in the Group F encounter, which they duly reached in 19.1 overs thanks to an assured performance by Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq.
The pair came to the crease with Pakistan struggling at 46 for four and went on to share a fine 119-run stand.
Captain Malik finished unbeaten on 52 from 38 balls while Misbah was 66 not out in a man-of-the-match performance.
Stuart Clark impressed with the ball for the Australians, finishing with three for 27 after taking the early wickets of openers Imran Nazir (10) and Mohammad Hafeez (15).
But the Aussie attack had no answer to the Pakistan middle order and victory was secured when Andrew Symonds sent down a wide with the scores level.
Australia made a sluggish start to their innings as opener Matthew Hayden fell for just one before Adam Gilchrist went for 24 to leave them 32 for two.
An injury to Ricky Ponting did not help matters, the captain requiring a runner due to a leg injury before Hafeez bowled him for 27.
Michael Hussey and Brad Hodge steadied the innings with knocks of 37 and 36 respectively, but Australia's total never really looked enough on a decent batting pitch.
"We always felt [the total] was a little bit shy," admitted Gilchrist, who found the boundary rope at the Wanderers five times in just 12 deliveries before his dismissal.
"It always felt like it was a reasonable wicket. We've seen the way the ball gets to the boundary rope here.
"We just felt that in those conditions we were probably about 15 or 20 [runs] short to really walk out [for the Pakistan innings] with a confident step."
Pakistan's fifth-wicket stand between Malik and Misbah turned the game on its head in the 14th over, the pair bludgeoning 17 runs from Symonds to give them a victory target of 31 from 30 balls.
The off-song Symonds finished with figures of zero for 27 from just 2.1 overs, but Gilchrist refused to blame the Aussie attack for their failure to deal with the impressive duo.
"I don't think our bowlers let us down, it was with the bat where we let ourselves down today."
Malik was delighted to secure a victory that almost guarantees Pakistan a berth in the final four, but at one stage he feared the Aussies might run away with it in the closing overs.
However, the final three overs saw Australia rack up just 14 runs as the Pakistan attack stifled their middle order.
"After the 16th over I thought they might make 200 plus, but I must give credit to Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi - the way they were bowling was superb," said Malik.
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