AUS vs PAK, 2nd T20I, Review: Billy Stanlake and Finch help Australia romp home

The Aussies begin their campaign in style.

Published - 02 Jul 2018, 16:22 IST | Updated - 02 Jul 2018, 16:22 IST

2 Min Read

Australia have finally managed to end their losing rut in the coloured clothing as they defeated Pakistan comfortably in the ongoing T20I tri-series. They were pummelled by England across 6 encounters and needed a massive boost in confidence to pose any threat to the World number 1 side in the format. The lanky fast bowler Billy Stanlake stepped up to the task as he ripped apart the top order of Pakistan in his fiery four-over spell which turned out to be match-winning eventually.

After losing the toss, the opening duo of Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Hafeez strode out to the middle as the latter endured his second failure in 2 days bagging a three-ball duck. Stanlake’s back of a length delivery bounced more which took the edge of Hafeez’s bat and the skipper Aaron Finch didn’t make any mistake in the slip. The fall of wickets continued as the likes of Zaman, Hussain Talat and Sarfraz Ahmed followed each other to the dugout.

All of them fell to the same bowler and Finch took a couple more brilliant catches standing at the slip to reduce the Men in Green to 24/4 in the seventh over. Stanlake ended his spell with the new ball itself and returned with exceptional figures of 4/8 which rattled Pakistan and they could never recover from it. There was also a horrible mix-up between Shoaib Malik and Asif Ali which caught the former short of the crease to end a promising stand.

It was only due to the efforts of Shadab Khan and Faheem Ashraf that they managed to cross the three-figure mark and were eventually bowled out in the last over. They could only post 116 runs as Andrew Tye, despite being expensive, ran through the tail in the death overs. Australia were simply magnificent in the field as they took some unbelievable catches which led to their opposition not being able to make a comeback at any stage.

Finch leads the chase

The chase of 117 runs was never going to be a problem even for the Men in Yellow who had recently struggled to put up a good show with the bat against England. Moreover, Finch decided to launch an assault on the bowlers in the powerplay overs itself and got his team off to a brilliant start. He took a special liking to the spinners as Sarfraz had no option after Usman Khan had gone for runs.

Even D’Arcy Short seemed to have regained the old touch before becoming the bunny of Hasan Ali in the fourth over. But his partner Finch was on song and was determined to win the game for his team. He literally humiliated the likes of Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz by hitting some huge sixes and thereby entertained the meagre crowd at the Harare Sports Club.

In the process, he also brought up his half-century off just 27 balls and fittingly finished the game with a couple of sixes in the 11th over itself. He remained unbeaten on 68 off just 33 balls as the Aussies won the match by 9 wickets with a massive 55 balls to spare.

They were completely authoritative in their approach on the day and the credit of the same has to go to Stanlake who made it all easy with a stunning four-over spell up front. They will now face the hosts Zimbabwe now on Tuesday as Pakistan will get a day to reflect the mistakes they committed in this encounter.