Australia vs Pakistan, 2019: 2nd T20I – Babar Azam inching Virat Kohli's record; Smith's record knock and more stats

Australia took an unassailable 1-0 lead in the 3-match T20I series against Pakistan as they clinched the 2nd T20I by 7 wickets. Skipper Babar Azam (50 off 38) at the top and Iftikhar Ahmed (62* off 34) at the end scored fifties to help the visitors finish on 150/6. The Aussies lost both their openers for the first time in this home season. However, Steve Smith struck an unbeaten 51-ball 80 with the help of 11 fours and a six. His knock handed a comfortable win to the home side despite other batsmen scoring at a slow pace.

All the statistical highlights from Australia’s first T20I win over Pakistan since July 2018:

Australia finally beats Pakistan:

7 – The Australian team has defeated Pakistan for the first time in the last seven T20Is. Coming into the series, Australia lost its previous five T20Is against Pakistan while the first T20I in Sydney got washed out after 3.1 overs of Australian chase.

Australia’s happy hunting ground:

6 – Australia won all the six International matches at the Manuka Oval in Canberra which hosted a T20I for the first time on Tuesday. Previously, the Aussies won all the four ODIs they played in Canberra till 2016 and recorded a huge win during the venue’s Test debut this year.

A great start to Babar’s captaincy career with the bat:

3 – Babar Azam became only the 3rd player to score fifties in the first two matches as captain in the T20I format. Paul Stirling and Quinton de Kock are the other two players who also achieved this feat in 2019 only.

A rare match award for Smith in T20s:

2 – Only the 2nd time Steve Smith has won a player of the match award in the T20I. His first such award was in the 2010 WT20 game against West Indies where he took 3/20 in his four overs which includes the wickets of Kieron Pollard and Daren Sammy on consecutive deliveries. Overall, this is Smith’s 10th player of the match award in the Twenty20 format but only the 3rd on Australian soil.

4 – The unbeaten 80 by Smith in this game is his highest individual score in T20Is at home. Overall, Smith has scored four T20I fifties across 28 innings but three of them came in the last five innings.

80* – Steve Smith’s unbeaten 80 is now the 3rd highest individual score in a T20I chase on Australian soil. Glenn Maxwell scored an unbeaten 103 against England during last year’s Trans-Tasman Tri-series. Earlier in 2017, Asela Gunaratne scored 84* in a last-over thriller against the hosts in Geelong.

This is also the 3rd highest individual score in a successful T20I chase for Australia. Only Glenn Maxwell’s 113* against India this year and his 103* against England last year are ahead of Smith’s effort in this list.

Warner finally gets dismissed:

239 – David Warner has been dismissed for the first time in five innings in this home season. His 239 runs are the 2nd highest for any player between two dismissals in the T20I format. Aaron Finch scored 240 runs in 2018 when he scored 68* and 172 in consecutive innings during the Tri-series in Zimbabwe.

Babar’s record year continues:

1601 – Babar Azam has scored 1601 runs in the Twenty20 format this year. Only Chris Gayle (1665 runs in 2015) and Virat Kohli (1614 runs in 2016) have aggregated more T20 runs in a calendar year than Babar. The last game of this T20I series will be his last Twenty20 game of 2019.

15 – Both Babar Azam and David Warner have 15 scores of 50+ runs in T20s this year; the joint 3rd most fifty-plus scores in the Twenty20 format by a player in a calendar year. Virat Kohli had 18 fifty-plus scores in 2016 while Chris Gayle had 16 in 2012.