RESULT: Australia (168-8) beat Pakistan (74 all out) by 94 runs. Pakistan win T20 series 2-1.
Maybe it was the lack of pressure going into the game or the willingness to leave with some pride but Australia’s Twenty20 side were explosive with bat and ball to beat Pakistan by 94 runs at the Dubai Sports City.
The comprehensive victory will go somewhere close to healing the record defeat Australia suffered at the hands of Pakistan in the first game of the series.
The Baggy Green humiliated Pakistan as they registered their lowest ever T20 score at 74 runs, the joint lowest total by a major cricking nation.
The T20 series with Pakistan was already lost going into the game having held an unassailable 2-0 lead but the Aussies picked up some valuable confidence, particularly from a monstrous three over spell by Shane Watson and David Warner as they set a total of 168 for Pakistan to chase.
Despite their good form, Pakistan did nothing of the sort. Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins ripped through their top order dismissing Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal for ducks.
When Watson dismissed Umar Akmal for two runs after five overs and one ball, Pakistan sat in the embarrassing position of 19-5 – there worst ever start in T20 – with all but one of their best batsmen out.
Five overs later and Pakistan had doubled their score for only one wicket but they had simply left themselves far too much to do. The runs dried up and the wickets fell as Pakistan fell for the pitiful total of 74.
In Australia’s innings, the two openers, Watson and Warner, racked up the biggest opening partnership – 111 – for an Aussie T20 side, with 50 of those runs coming in a breathless spell between the seventh and 10th overs where the pair crunched eight sixes.
Before then the two had got into a superb rhythm slashing singles and doubles between Pakistan’s fielders during the mandatory power play before finally opening their arms for three exhilarating overs.
Australia were’t able to keep up the strike rate once their openers were felled but the Warner-Watson partnership – which saw Warner score his seventh T20 50 – gave Australia more than enough runs to notch up a strong first innings total of 168.
Once Watson and Warner fell at 114-2 – both at the hands of Yasir Arafat – George Maxwell kept the runs coming as he exhibited prodigious ball striking and the “X-factor”, as captain George Bailey calls it.
Maxwell fell at 140-3 before Bailey was dismissed five runs later at the hands of Saeed Ajmal, who claimed the title of international T20’s best wicket taker, taking his tally to 59.
Michael Hussey, Dan Christian and Cameron White fell for 13, three and zero respectively as Australia’s middle order failed to build an insurmountable lead on top of Warner and Watson’s historic knock.
However, their efforts would be rewarded as the bowling attack took centre-stage with a ferocity Pakistan simply could not defend against.
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