Pakistan’s dominant run in the T20Is has finally come to an end as Australia bounced back from a disappointing limited-over campaign in England to claim a much-needed win in the ongoing tournament. The battle of the two best outfits in T20Is saw the top-ranked team get thrashed by 9 wickets after some stellar performances from the Aussie camp.

It all started with a four-fer from Billy Stanlake in the first seven overs after Australia decided to bowl first. Stanlake ripped into the Pakistan top-order and conceded only eight runs in four overs. Pakistan lost their fifth when Shoaib Malik got run out on his record-breaking 100^th T20I appearance.

The hapless side now needed a good partnership to weather the storm. Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, and Faheem Ashraf scored 20-odd runs each in a bid to salvage the pride of their team but their efforts were not enough to help Pakistan register a decent total.

Marcus Stoinis and Jhye Richardson also took a wicket each before Andrew Tye wiped off the tail and snared 3 wickets.

Defending a target of 117 runs, Pakistan managed to scalp only one wicket before Aaron Finch single-handedly steered the team to victory with 55 balls remaining, which is the biggest win (in terms of balls remaining) against Pakistan in T20Is.

Australia skipper Finch made 68 off 33 while remaining unbeaten and clubbed six sixes and four boundaries. Travis Head was also not out on 20 runs and stitched an 82-run partnership with Finch after D’Arcy Short got dismissed by Hasan Ali for 15 runs.

Australia will take on Zimbabwe in their next match on July 3 and Pakistan will also face the same opponents on the following day.

 

Scores:

PAK 116 (19.5 Overs)