Australian Bowlers Set a Manageable Chase
After Australia lost the toss and Pakistan elected to bat first at Ninja Stadium in Bellerive, it was up to the Aussie bowlers to set a manageable target for their batters to reach.
Xavier Bartlett was the first man to the middle for Australia as he was tasked with starting them off on the right foot.
Sahibzada Farhan and Babar Azam stood against him as the openers for Pakistan. It was a good over for the Pakistani men as they were all over Bartlett’s stuff and ended with 10 in the over.
Spencer Johnson came in to deal with the second over for Australia and was able to claim the matches first wicket as he tied up Farhan who lifted an easy catch to midwicket.
Bartlett was stronger in the third over as he gave up just six to keep Pakistan at 24-1. They surrendered just six more in the fourth over before Pakistan attacked in the fifth.
Marcus Stoinis’ first over of the match was one to forget as he gave up 16 runs. Nathan Ellis didn’t fare much better in the next over as he gave up 12 of his own.
Adam Zampa then righted the ship for the Aussies giving up just four runs and taking another wicket to push Pakistan to 61-2.
Aaron Hardie had similar success in the following over giving up four runs and claiming another wicket for Australia.
Two overs later Hardie was back to work this time forcing Pakistani captain Agha Salman off the pitch to push the score to 70-4.
Pakistan slowly worked their score up over the next few overs before Adam Zampa shut down their run by bowling their topman Babar Azam.
Azam had done much of the damage for Pakistan and his out gave Australia the upper hand at 91-5.
Australia held the other batsmen in check for the rest of the overs before taking wickets in the 17th, 18th, and 19th overs to halt the Pakistan attack at 117.
Bats Explode after Scary Start
Chasing 118, the Australian batters got off to a slow start.
Jake Fraser-McGurk and Matthew Short started off with 16 runs in the opening two overs before both losing their wickets in quick succession.
First it was Short who was caught out in the third over with just two runs to his name.
Fraser McGurk at least did some damage with 18 runs but in the fourth over outed himself cheaply to put Australia at just 30-2.
Captain Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis were now the men in the middle for Australia and they put together a great partnership to take the Aussies to the brink of victory.
They slowly worked up the score while keeping themselves out of harms way between the fourth and seventh overs before exploding the Aussie score quickly.
They knocked through nine runs in the eighth over to push the score to 57-2 and then put in 22 more in the ninth to suddenly have their side at 79.
Inglis was caught out in the tenth to leave Australia at 85-3 but Stoinis kept going and did significant damage. Alongside Tim David, they put through 25 runs in the eleventh and then seven more in the twelfth to reach the magical 118 number with seven wickets to spare.
Stoinis finished with 61 not out in what was a massive effort to ensure the sweep for Australia.
Australia’s performance against Pakistan in their third and final T20 match of the series was brilliant as the bowlers set a manageable target whilst Marcus Stoinis and the batsmen were able to reach that number with ease and wickets to spare to complete the sweep.
