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Australia vs Pakistan: T20 Tri-series final cricket highlights, live scores, blog

8th July, 2018
First ball: 6 pm (AEST)
Venue: Harare Sports Club, Harare
TV: Live, Nine Network
Online: Live, 9Now

Pakistan squad:
Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Sarfraz Ahmed(c), Haris Sohail, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir, Usman Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Sahibzada Farhan

Australia squad:
Aaron Finch(c), Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jack Wildermuth
Australian batsman Aaron Finch. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Roar Guru
8th July, 2018
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Australia face Pakistan in the final of their tri-series that will be played at Harare in Zimbabwe on Sunday, July 8. The game will begin at 6pm AEST and you can follow it live with The Roar below.

After a brilliant start to the tournament, Australia’s performances fell away in the second half of the competition and it gave an insight as to how the team struggles in the absence of captain Aaron Finch’s batting at the top of the order.

Finch, in the first two games of this tri-series showed exemplary form with the bat, breaking his own T20I record for the highest individual score and the matches were won with consummate ease.

Then, it was followed by two back to back failures and a game was lost to Pakistan while the other went the distance against Zimbabwe, something one wouldn’t have expected given how poorly Zimbabwe’s performance had been in the series. Not to forget this was also nearly a second-string Zimbabwean side.

That said, part of the blame for Australia’s defeat at the hands of Pakistan in their previous league match could be put down to their under-par bowling performance as well, one in which their bowlers a fair amount of short balls on a surface that might have been aptly made for fuller lengths.

Pakistan had looked thoroughly outplayed in their first outing against Australia but showed their mettle as the number one team in the T20I world when they went on to crash their opposition’s party in their reverse fixture.

In doing so, they also revealed their batting isn’t as bad as it was made out to be in the first game against Australia, and applying a proper mindset to building their innings could remain a key to their chances.

Of course, that’s not to forget their bowling line-up presents a stern challenge for most batsmen around the world, including an Aussie side that will need the likes of Travis Head, Alex Caey and Glenn Maxwell to show a tad more restraint before they take on the bowling.

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The contest between the Pakistani spinners and the Australian batsmen continues to remain a fascinating one.

Prediction
The team batting second could have an advantage in this game with the bowling expected to be a lot better from both sides.

Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this T20I in Harare from 6pm (AEST) and don’t forget to drop a comment in the section below.

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