The Australian skipper Aaron Finch scored a crucial half-century to conclude their tour of Pakistan in a happy ending after beating the hosts by three wickets in a single T20I at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore on Tuesday.
The Australian white-ball skipper Aaron Finch scored a crucial half-century to conclude their tour of Pakistan in a happy ending after beating the hosts by three wickets in a single T20I at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore on Tuesday.
Finch, who has made struggling to make runs in the last couple of games in the ODIs, positively ended the tour after returning with the figures of 45-ball 55 as Australia kept a hold on their nerves lately to successfully chase down 163.
The skipper departed in the penultimate over after trying to hook Shaheen Afridi while trying to finish the game in a style but Asif Ali on the deep took a fine catch to add some twist.
Shaheen then castled Sean Abbott three balls later to make things more interesting but Australia managed to get across the line with three balls to spare.
Earlier, being asked to bat first, Pakistan were off to an ideal start by their skipper’s brilliant 66 off 46 balls but soon after that the middle-order collapsed, added by some fine bowling from Nathan Ellis (4/28) that saved Australia at least 20 runs in the total and Pakistan were restricted on 162-8 in the allotted overs.
The knock played by Babar included six boundaries and two maximums alongside Mohammad Rizwan who added 23 runs to the scorecard until Khushdil Shah’s 24 came and later some fireworks by Usman Qadir at the end.
On the first tour of Pakistan after 24 long years, the visitors prevailed in the Test series by 1-0 and the hosts sealed the ODI series by 2-1.
Aaron Finch is player of the match:
“Thought the way our bowlers attacked that game were fantastic. Nathan Ellis had a tough start but showed real character. Everything we do is one eye on the World Cup. There have been a lot of great performances on this tour and the whole Australian summer. To see so many young cricketers come on is super exciting. Glad we don’t have to bowl to Babar anymore for a while.”
Australia 163 for 7 (Finch 55, Shaheen 2-21) beat Pakistan 162 for 8 (Babar 66, Ellis 4-28) by three wickets.
