Match Details
It was debutant Zahid Mahmood who provided the maiden breakthrough in the form of Finch’s wicket. He bowled beautifully in the middle overs after getting a tap from Travis Head in the beginning. Ben McDermott joined Head in the middle and both batted sensibly and rotated the strike well. McDermott had a tough time to begin with but managed to settle down after the initial struggle.
Head was dismissed immediately after getting to his century as he chipped one straight to the wide long-off fielder. The Pakistan spin trio of Zahid Mahmood, Iftikhar Ahmed and Khushdil Shah tightened the screws on the Australian batters and it was a good phase of play for Pakistan. It was a quickfire knock of 40 of 30 deliveries by Cameron Green towards the death overs which propelled Australia over the 300 mark. Eventually, it proved to be way too much as Australia won by 88 runs.
Despite batting very well, both batted in a similar pace which never really allowed Pakistan to run away with the game. Despite not taking a wicket, Australia was in control of the game courtesy the scoring rate and in the end, the rate got too big on them. The duo shared a 96 runs stand for the 2nd wicket but it came in almost 20 overs which was perhaps the difference between the two sides.
Imam-ul-Haq kept fighting hard and went onto reach a well-deserved century in 91 deliveries. He upped the ante against the spinners when the asking rate was climbing at a rapid pace. He did keep a pace of the required rate but his dismissal at the hands of Nathan Elis courtesy a sensational yorker was the end of Pakistan’s challenge. Adam Zampa then bagged three quick wickets which included wickets of back to back deliveries. In the end Pakistan fell well short by 88 runs. Zampa was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets while Swepson chipped in with a couple.