Australia hammered Pakistan by 7 wickets in the third and final T20I of the series on Monday, November 18 at Bellerive Oval, Hobart.
After opting to bat first, Pakistan were bundled out for 117 in 18.1 overs with Babar Azam (41 off 28) being the lone warrior. Aaron Hardie was the pick of the bowlers for Australia with figures of 3/21 in four overs.
In reply, the hosts comfortably chased down the target courtesy of Marcus Stoinis’ blitzkrieg who smashed an unbeaten 61* off 27 balls. As a result, Australia won the match and completed a 3-0 whitewash over Pakistan after losing the ODI series by 1-2.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan rested their captain Mohammad Rizwan as Agha Salman was handed over the leadership duties. Pakistan began the innings with the new pair of Sahibzada Farhan and Babar Azam. However, the duo didn’t last long as Farhan fell prey to Spencer Johnson for 9 (7).
After the early blow, Haseebullah Khan (24 off 19) joined Babar at the crease and the duo added 44 runs off 31 balls for the second wicket. However, they couldn’t extend their partnership beyond that as Haseebullah got caught at point against Adam Zampa. Following his dismissal, Pakistan fell like a pack of cards as Aaron Hardie (3/21) ran through their middle order.
Babar was also cleaned up by Zampa (2/11) in the 13th over leaving Pakistan on 91/5 in 12.3 overs. Irfan Khan (10 off 8) and Shaheen Afridi (16 off 12) played some useful cameos in the end to take their team’s score past 100. Pakistan were eventually bundled out for 118 setting Australia a below part target to chase to complete a whitewash.
Marcus Stoinis blows away Pakistan bowling
Australia lost Matthew Short (2 off 4) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (18 off 11) early in the chase which left them reeling at 30/2 in 3.3 overs. Their dismissals brought Marcus Stoinis at the crease who took his time first up scoring 9 off 10 balls. He got himself going in the ninth over as he unleashed his beast mode against Haris Rauf smashing him for two fours and as many sixes.
He further took apart Shaheen Afridi in the 11th over clobbering him for two sixes and a boundary bringing up his half century off 22 balls. He finished the match in the 12th over by smacking Abbas Afridi for a maximum off his first delivery and was later dismissed on a waist high no-ball on the third delivery which sealed the win for Australia. As a result, the hosts comfortably chased down the target in 11.2 overs with Stoinis remaining unbeaten on 61* (27). The all rounder was adjudged Player of the Match for his breathtaking half-century while Spencer Johnson was adjudged Player of the Series after scalping 8 wickets across three matches.