Australia secured a 13-run victory in the second fixture of the three-match T20I series against Pakistan on Saturday in Sydney. The win helped the franchise to secure an unassailable lead of 2-0 as they head to Hobart for the final game of the series.
Batting first, Australia were off to a flyer, as they accumulated 21 runs off the first over bowled by Shaheen Afridi, riding on Jake Fraser-McGurk’s aggressive intent. Then, Matthew Short also got into the act with his terrific hitting.
However, the opening stand was put to an end by Haris Rauf, who cramped Fraser-McGurk (20) with a short ball, as the batter could get only holed out at deep extra-cover region. Then, Rauf induced a leading edge of skipper Josh Inglis (0) to turn the tables.
Then, Abbas Afridi deceived Short (32) with a back-of-the-hand slower ball, and left Australia reeling at 56/3. However, the likes of Glenn Maxwell (21), Marcus Stoinis (14) and Tim David (18) spent a good time at the crease to keep the hosts in good stead.
In the end, Aaron Hardie (28) played an impressive hand in helping Australia to post a modest total of 147 on the board. Rauf was the wrecker-in-chief with four scalps for Pakistan, followed by Abbas Afridi with three dismissals.
Spencer Johnson stars in Australia’s series victory
Chasing 148, Pakistan got off to a fine start with 12 runs off the first over off Spencer Johnson. However, Xavier Bartlett made Babar Azam (3) holed out at the deep square leg region, as the star batter could not clear the fence with his flick. Thereafter, Sahibzada Farhan (5) was caught near the circle, as he failed to put away Johnson’s short ball.
Skipper Mohammad Rizwan played a disappointing knock of 16 off 26, before he was dismissed by Johnson in the 10th over. On the very next ball, Agha Salman was dismissed for a duck and Pakistan were stuttering at 44/4.
Then, Usman Khan and Irfan Khan tried to rebuild the team’s innings and played with a positive intent by accumulating odd boundaries. However, their impressive 58-run stand was broken by Johnson, who dismissed Usman for 52 off 38.
Although, Irfan remained unbeaten on 37 off 28, Australia managed to win the game by 11 runs. Johnson finished with career-best figures of 5/26.
