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Australia's bizarre tactics see them lose to Pakistan. Again

26th October, 2018
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26th October, 2018
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Australia made a mess of their batting and bowling tactics last night as they lost to Pakistan once more in the International Twenty20 series in the UAE.

The tourists restricted Pakistan to 6-147 despite picking a strange bowling attack and then fell 11 runs short in a chase which featured some truly curious strategies.

Batting second, the Aussies were extraordinarily cautious in the powerplay, scoring just 11 runs off the bat in the first five overs. D’Arcy Short made just two from 12 balls, Aaron Finch three from ten and then Chris Lynn allowed ten dots in his 12-ball knock. It was gobsmacking batting from three of the most attacking batsmen in Australia.

Not only was their normal aggression nowhere to be seen, but that trio did not even try to score singles, despite plenty of gaps in the infield. Whatever the thinking behind this confounding strategy, it was blatantly flawed.

By the time Short, Lynn and Finch had all departed after 6.3 overs, they had allowed the required run rate to balloon from a very manageable 7.4 runs per over to almost nine. Mitch Marsh (21 from 23 balls) struggled to get anywhere near matching this steep run rate and, even with Glenn Maxwell cruising along, Australia fell way behind the game.

They managed to give Pakistan a scare thanks to some ferocious striking from Maxwell (52 from 37) and handy tail-ender Nathan Coulter-Nile (27 from 17). When Coulter-Nile launched a monstrous 106-metre six from the first ball of the last over, Australia needed 17 from five balls. But prodigiously talented 18-year-old Pakistani quick Shaheen Afridi held his nerve and got rid of both Coulter-Nile and Maxwell to close out the match.

Glenn Maxwell Sad

Even a special Glenn Maxwell knock wasn’t enough for the Aussies. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Earlier, Australia making the odd decision of stacking the side with pace bowlers. The tourists dropped left-arm spinner Ashton Agar for Mitch Marsh, which gave them four quick options and just one specialist spinner.

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This decision went against the grain of modern strategies in international T20 cricket, which is utterly dominated by spinners – slow men account for nine of the top ten ranked bowlers in the world.

Australia’s decision to go pace-heavy was shown to be foolish, with their spinners conceding just 5.2 runs per over from their eight overs compared to a whopping 8.75 from their quicks.

Just when, you wonder, will Australia’s selectors finally recognise that spinners rule the roost in the shortest format? Even their part-time spinners did well last night, with D’Arcy Short and Glenn Maxwell combining to take 1-21 from four overs.

Which only made it even more confusing that, for this match in Asian conditions, Australia dropped Agar, who has been their most economical bowler in T20Is this year, going at a miserly 6.97 runs per over.

On the bright side, leg-spinner Zampa bowled better than he has in more than 12 months. After being hammered for six from his first delivery, a flighted offering which Mohammad Hafeez latched on to, Zampa adapted extremely well. He bowled quicker and flatter than in the first game and found a perfect in-between length which allowed the batsman to go neither forward nor back with confidence.

Australia's Adam Zampa bowls

(AAP Image/SNPA, John Cowpland)

Short, too, bowled well and managed to consistently locate that same testing length. In the first match, it was Short who broke Pakistan’s main stand and yesterday he again got the big wicket, this time of Babar Azam (45). While he’s yet to fire with the bat in this series, Short has taken 2-29 from five overs to underline his all-round value in the shortest format.

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The West Australian was extremely unlucky last night to cop a very poor decision, with Pakistani third umpire Shozab Raza making a mess of a run-out call.

When Aaron Finch struck a straight drive back at Imad Wasim it skimmed the spinner’s hand and hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end. Short’s bat looked to be grounded – at the very least there was no clear evidence it was not grounded – yet the third umpire watched just a single replay of the incident before making a very hasty decision.

In the end, though, that decision was not instrumental as Short was struggling with the bat and Australia’s top order lost the match on their own.

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