Steve Smith and Shane Watson have withstood a brilliant spell of fast-bowling from Pakistan's Wahab Riaz to steer Australia into a World Cup semi-final against India next week.
Wahab (2-54) removed David Warner (24) and Michael Clarke (2) in the space eight deliveries to leave Australia 3-59 in reply to Pakistan's below-par total of 213.
The left-armer then tested Watson with a sustained spell of fiery short deliveries and should have had his man for just 4 when the Australia allrounder top-edged a pull shot to Rahat Ali at fine leg.
But Rahat spilled the simpilest of chances and Watson took full advantage of the let off, combining with Smith for an 89-run partnership that put victory out of Pakistan's reach.
Smith was near flawless in moving to 65 from 69 balls before he was trapped in front by Ehsan Adil in the 27th over.
Glenn Maxwell then joined Watson to power the home side to victory, smashing an unbeaten 44 from 29 balls as Australia won by six wickets with 97 to spare.
Watson finished not out on 64.
Earlier, Pakistan team scored only 213 losing all wickets.
Starc dismissed Sarfraz Ahmed for 10 runs and Riaz for 16 while Hazlewood picked Shehzad's wicket for 5 runs, Afridi at 23, Sohail at 4 and Sohaib at 29. Johnson sent Haris Sohail back to the pavilion at 41 while Maxwell stopped Misbah at 34 and Akmal at 20. Faulkner took the wicket of Adil at 15.
Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first against Australia in the third quarter final match of the ICC World Cup 2015 at the Adelaide Oval on Friday.
It was just the second time in this World Cup that Australia had to chase a total; the first was when they sent Scotland in last weekend due to the threatening weather in Hobart. Pakistan have batted first three times in this campaign for three wins.
Teams
Australia: 1 Aaron Finch, 2 David Warner, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Shane Watson, 7 James Faulkner, 8 Brad Haddin (wk), 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Mitchell Starc, 11 Josh Hazlewood.
Pakistan: 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 3 Haris Sohail, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 5 Sohaib Maqsood, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Sohail Khan, 10 Rahat Ali, 11 Ehsan Adil.
