Sydney: Fast bowler Spencer Johnson grabbed a career-best 5-26 and propelled Australia to a 13-run win over Pakistan as the home team clinched the three-match T20I series with a game to spare Saturday.
Johnson sliced through the top order and Pakistan crumbled to 134 all out in the final over that gave Australia a decisive 2-0 lead in Josh Inglis’ first series as skipper.
Usman Khan made a fighting 52 and Irfan Khan scored unbeaten 37 but the visitors otherwise struggled with Johnson’s pace on a bouncy wicket with captain Mohammad Rizwan (16) the only other batter to cross the double-figure mark.
Australia, beaten by Pakistan 2-1 in the preceding ODI series, will eye a sweep Monday at Hobart.
The home team couldn’t capitalize on a whirlwind start and ended up at 147-9 after Inglis won the toss and elected to bat. Fast bowler Haris Rauf put the brakes on Australia’s rapid start with 4-22 and Abbas Afridi bowled well in the death overs to finish with 3-17.
Matthew Short (32) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (20) posted Australia’s fastest-ever 50 in T20s off 20 balls with both Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah going for plenty of runs inside the power play.
Pakistan was sloppy in the field with at least four dropped catches. Fraser-McGurk was dropped by Naseem at third man in Afridi’s expensive first over which went for 21 and Shah conceded 16 in his first over.
Haris struck twice in his first over when Fraser-McGurk couldn’t clear Salman Ali Agha at cover and Sufiyan Muqeem, playing his first T20 since making his debut at the Asian Games last year, took a splendid catch at point to dismiss Inglis for zero.
Abbas Afridi then ended Short’s 17-ball knock with a brilliant slower ball to knock back the stumps as Australia slipped to 61-3 in six overs.
Marcus Stoinis (14) was also twice dropped on 0 and 6 before he played a reverse sweep to Muqeem’s left-arm spin straight to deep point and Glenn Maxwell, whose 43 had earned Australia a 29-run win Thursday, holed out to deep mid-wicket after scoring a 20-ball 21.
Rauf picked up the wickets of Tim David (18) and Xavier Bartlett (5) in his return spell before Aaron Hardie made 28 runs off 23 balls to lift Australia’s total.
Babar (3) flicked Bartlett’s first ball straight to Nathan Ellis at deep square leg and Australia didn’t allow Pakistan to score a boundary off the bat for nine overs.
Rizwan tried to break the shackles and smashed the first boundary off Spencer in the 10th over but was caught by a diving David at mid-on off the next ball. Spencer then found the edge of Agha’s bat off the next delivery before Usman and Irfan combined in a 58-run stand.
Inglis couldn’t hold on to a sharp edge of Usman against Adam Zampa’s leg-spin when he was on 12 and then Short misjudged a catch over his head when the batter reached 41 before he completed his half-century off 34 balls.
Johnson broke the threatening stand when he had Usman caught at short fine leg with a sharp short delivery in the 16th over. Zampa took two wickets in his last over to finish with economical figures of 2-19 before last man Rauf got run-out in the last over.
