ZIM Tri-Series, 2018: Match 2, Australia v Pakistan – Statistical Highlights

Australia brought an end to Pakistan’s winning streak in the T20I format with a thumping win in their first game of the Tri-nation T20I series in Harare. The Australian pace attack was too tough to handle for the Pakistan batsmen as Billy Stanlake ran through the top order with a 4-wicket haul. Just three of the Pakistan batsmen crossed 20 runs and they were from the lower end of the batting order before being bowled out for 116.

Aaron Finch made the chase easy by taking on the Pakistan bowlers with successive boundaries as they cruised to a 9-wicket victory with 55 balls to spare. The Australian captain struck six sixes during his unbeaten 33-ball 68 to hand his team their first International win since the ball-tampering game.

All the major stats and numbers that were recorded during Australia’s big win over Pakistan:

1 – Shoaib Malik became the first player to feature in 100 matches in Men’s T20I cricket. Overall, he is only the 3rd player to feature in as many as 100 T20I matches (Men/Women) after Jenny Gunn (104) and Suzie Bates (101) who achieved this feat in Women’s T20I cricket.

4/8 – Billy Stanlake’s bowling figures of 4-0-8-4 in this game are the 2nd best by any bowler for Australia in T20I cricket. James Faulkner’s 4-0-27-5 are the best for Australia which also came against Pakistan in the 2016 WT20 game.

8 – The eight runs Stanlake conceded in his quota of four overs are the fewest by any player for Australia in a T20I. Cameron Boyce gave away only ten runs in his four overs against Pakistan in the 2014 Dubai T20I which was incidentally his debut game.

8 – Pakistan’s longest winning streak of eight T20I matches came to an end with this defeat. Afghanistan (11 T20Is in 2016-2017) remain the only side to win more than 8 T20I matches in a succession.

This is also the first loss for Pakistan in the eight T20I matches on Zimbabwe soil having won on all the previous seven occasions.

9 – Australia’s win in this game is their first in ten matches since winning the Durban Test on South Africa tour across all formats. Their nine consecutive defeats across all formats was their longest losing streak in International cricket.

55 – Australia chased down the target of 117 with just 55 balls to spare which is the 2nd biggest victory in T20I cricket in terms of balls to spare. They defeated Sri Lanka in the WT20 2007 game with 58 balls to spare while chasing a target of 102.

This is also the biggest defeat in this format for Pakistan in terms of balls to spare. Their previous biggest was against South Africa in 2007 Johannesburg T20I where the hosts chased down a target of 130 in just 11.3 overs.

116 – Pakistan are the first side to be bowled out while batting first in the 22 T20I matches that Zimbabwe has hosted. Zimbabwe were bowled out three times in the T20Is at home all while chasing a target.