The one-off T20I match between Pakistan and Australia was played yesterday at the Gaddafi Stadium and it brought and end to Australia’s month-long tour to Pakistan which included a 3-match test series, a 3-match ODI series and this one-off T20I series. Pakistan openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan broke a massive record with their brilliant performances in last night’s match and gave a fabulous start to Pakistan but unfortunately, the home side ended up losing the match even after that. This was Australia’s second big T20I victory against Pakistan in the recent past. They had also defeated the Paks in the semi-final of the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup and the Paks were unable to take their revenge this time.
Australian captain Aaron Finch won the toss and opted to bowl first, which was a wonderful decision as the bowlers would find it difficult in the second innings due to the dew factor. As mentioned earlier, Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam gave Pakistan a brilliant start. In fact, their 56 runs partnership in the powerplay was the highest ever in Pakistan’s history against Australia in T20Is and this was a big achievement. However, Mohammad Rizwan departed soon and Fakhar Zaman who replaced him, departed shortly after for a duck.
It was all Babar Azam show after that. The Pakistan captain played a brilliant knock of 66 off 46 in the match and his knock included a fabulous six against Australia’s Ben Dwarshius which showed how much of a classy batsman Babar Azam truly is.
Pakistan was able to reach a score of 162 runs but Australia ended up chasing the total with 5 balls and 3 wickets to go. Australia won the Test series and the One-off T20I match while Pakistan won the ODI series in this tour. We got to see some extraordinary games of cricket in this tour and we got numerous moments to cherish for days to come.