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After bowling well last night on a flat pitch, Australia collapsed embarrassingly with the bat, falling to 6-22 in the first T20I against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.
Australia were tight with the ball in keeping Pakistan to 8/155 from their 20 overs but then got ripped apart by the world’s number one ranked T20I team, who eventually dismissed them for 89.
The tourists looked skittish from the start of their chase, with gun opener Aaron Finch moving around in the crease against accurate Pakistan left-arm spinner Imad Wasim. Backing away far outside leg stump, Finch mistimed the first ball of the innings, missed the second as Imad followed him and was bowled from the third as the tweaker went straighter.
Three balls later, Finch’s opening partner D’Arcy Short was bowled, too, inside edging a skidding Imad delivery. That left Australia’s blasters Glenn Maxwell and Chris Lynn in the unusual situation of having to play with patience and caution to try to rebuild the innings.
Maxwell lasted seven balls before he went for an ambitious inside-out cover drive and had his stumps rattled by medium pacer Faheem Ashraf. Two balls later another wicket was sacrificed as youngster Ben McDermott struck the ball straight to mid-off, went for a suicidal run and was caught short.
Then wicketkeeper Alex Carey followed a wide, drifting Imad delivery and edged it behind, before Lynn was castled by Faheem as he went for a thunderous off drive.
Ashton Agar and Nathan Coulter-Nile held up Pakistan with a 38-run stand but by then the result was a foregone conclusion. While Pakistan deserve credit for the way they bowled, Australia’s batting was woeful.
Earlier, quicks Billy Stanlake and Andrew Tye continued their good form in T20Is with three wickets apiece. That pair earned their success via vastly different approaches – Stanlake blasting out batsmen and Tye fooling them with his clever changeups.
Stanlake, who earlier this year took 4-8 in a T20I against Pakistan, troubled all of the home batsmen with his sharp pace and disconcerting bounce. Pakistan’s star opener Fakhar Zaman was far too late on a 148kmh bouncer from Stanlake and succeeded only in skying his attempted hook shot to the cover fieldsman.
Then the beanpole quick dismissed Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed and gifted all-rounder Shadab Khan in the space of four deliveries. Sarfraz was beaten for pace and trapped LBW, before Shadab too could not handle Stanlake’s speed and top-edged a pull shot to fine leg.
When two balls later bowling all-rounder Imad Wasim slapped a drive straight to cover, Tye had his third wicket and Pakistan had, quite incredibly, lost 7-28.
The hosts had been in control when Babar Azam (68 from 55 balls) and Mohammad Hafeez (39 from 30 balls) steered them to 1/105 from 13.4 overs. At that point, Pakistan looked set for a score of anywhere between 170 and 190.
That stand was finally broken by the unlikely figure of D’Arcy Short, who up until then had been barely used in T20Is, sending down just four overs in his 11-match career for figures of 0-44. The left arm wrist spinner tied up Hafeez and then skidded through a shorter, quicker delivery which surprised the Pakistani, who bunted a pull shot to mid-wicket.
That started a collapse which looked set to be the worst of the night before Australia stole the show. The Aussies must now win the next two matches to claim this T20I series.