Hardie, Zampa and Stoinis provided clinical victory

A clinical bowling performance led by Aaron Hardie (3-21) and Adam Zampa (2-11) followed by Marcus Stoinis’ powerful innings (61* off 27) helped Australia to a crushing seven-wicket win over Pakistan in the final T20I in Hobart. Pakistan elected to bat and raced away to 58/1 in PowerPlay, but then imploded sensationally to finish on a paltry total of 117. Australia lost a couple of wickets trying to finish the game quickly, but the result was never in doubt. Stoinis’ blitz ensured that the game was finished with 52 deliveries to spare.

Earlier in the evening, it looked as though Pakistan might produce their best batting performance of the series on a deck suited to fluent batting. Babar Azam started in a hurry with his trademark flicks and cover drives to get the visitors off the blocks. Sahibzada Farhan, the other opener, also hit a couple of boundaries but was once again undone by the extra bounce from Spencer Johnson. With regular skipper Mohammad Rizwan rested, Pakistan brought in Haseebullah at No.3 to give the youngster a chance.

However, he had a very jittery little turn that swung between the stripe to elegant as a seesaw. The southpaw eventually fell in Zampa’s first over while trying to up the ante. That breakthrough was the start of a dizzying collapse that came out of the blue, especially in such good batting conditions. Hardie stuck to the basics to get Usman Khan trapped in the deep and stand-in captain Agha Salman LBW. Pakistan’s batsmen were too eager to keep the run rate high, possibly knowing how good the pitch was, but ended up taking the wrong options in the process.

Babar was starved of the strike amid this implosion and his initial fluency also dampened as the innings progressed. Zampa then struck the big blow by throwing the ace batter to destroy the tourists’ hopes of reaching a competitive total. From there, the laps meandered to an underwhelming finish. If not for a couple of knocks from Jahandad Khan and Shaheen Afridi, the total may have struggled to get past three figures. To think that all this happened after Pakistan registered their highest ever PowerPlay total against Australia makes it an incredible downfall.

Australia’s openers Matt Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk fell cheaply as they tried to blast their way to the total. Both batsmen were fooled by slower balls as Pakistan’s seamers drew on their experience in Sydney. Short was on the loft far too early and drove one to extra cover, while Fraser-McGurk sliced ​​a drive straight to point. That brought up Stoinis, who moved up to No.4, and the right-hander looked in the zone from the start. Although skipper Josh Inglis struggled for momentum, Stoinis put them at will.

Stoinis’ attack started with a 22-run over from Haris Rauf that included two fours and two sixes, one of these maximums also cleared the ground. He did the same to Afridi in the latter’s second spell, resulting in a 25-run over with three sixes and a four. It was ball-striking at its best and made a mockery of an already paltry total as Australia swept the series 3-0 in style.

Short results: Pakistan 117 in 18.1 overs (Babar Azam 41; Aaron Hardie 3-21, Adam Zampa 2-11) lost to Australia 118/3 in 11.2 overs (Marcus Stoinis 61*; Abbas Afridi 1-14) by seven wickets