Australia crushed Pakistan by 29 runs after heavy rain and lightning delayed the start by over three hours, reducing the game to a seven-over shootout. After Pakistan collapsed to 24 for six in the first four overs before concluding with 64 for nine, Glenn Maxwell, who had a hard time in the previous ODI series, hammered his way through the innings with 43 off 19.
Unsurprisingly, Mohammad Rizwan put Australia in after making the right choice at the toss. However, knowing that wickets weren’t as important as they formerly thought, the hosts had a clear goal from the start: to score a boundary off every ball. Although Maxwell struggled during Haris Rauf’s tight opening over, the tide quickly flipped as batters thrashed Shaheen Shah Afridi for 16 runs in his opening over to set the tone.
Maxwell skillfully used the bowlers’ speed to get his strokes off with the reverse slog. Before tearing into his ODI tormentor, Rauf, and slamming 19 off his second over, Afridi stunningly bowled over third man for six. Tim David and Marcus Stoinis took over when he holed out to Abbas Afridi. Australia jumped to 93 thanks to Stoinis’ 20 off Naseem in the last over.
Sahibzada Farhan gave Pakistan a two-ball boundary to start the innings, but it was the best the visitors could do in the chase.
Five wickets went for eight runs in 12 balls at the start of an incredible stretch of play. Later in the over, Usman Khan delivered one down deep third man’s neck, and Mohammad Rizwan cut Xavier Bartlett to backward point for a duck.
Irfan Khan joined Babar Azam, who entered at number three, two balls after he mishit a half-volley down to long-off off Nathan Ellis’ first delivery. Despite the game’s severe shortening, rookie and vice captain Salman Ali Agha skied one off Ellis when Pakistan was on the verge of a crushing loss.
In the last three overs, however, Pakistan was able to bring the scoreboard back to something respectable, mostly because to Haseebullah Khan and Abbas’ 18 off the fifth -. Ellis would, however, catch Haseebullah for his third wicket as the wickets continued to tumble.
Zampa finished with successive wickets of his final two balls.
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