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28 March 2024

Dismal Pakistan crash to record T20 loss

Published
By Agencies

Pakistan went from the sublime to the disastrous against Australia on Monday, recording their lowest Twenty20 international total and suffering their heaviest defeat in the shortest form of the game.

Mohammed Hafeez's side were bowled out for just 74, giving Australia a crushing 94-run win three days after Pakistan had secured the three-match series with victory in a super over following a seven-wicket success in match one.

Pakistan's score was below their previous lowest 89 against England in 2010 and the loss eclipsed their worst in terms of runs, beating the 48-run defeat they suffered to England in 2009.

They also equalled India's score of 74 made against Australia in 2008, the lowest total by a leading cricket nation and sixth-lowest score by any side in a Twenty20 international.

"It is a wake-up call for the whole team as in this last game we couldn't meet expectations," Hafeez told reporters.

"Australia played better cricket than us today, their openers were outstanding and we didn't play smart cricket, losing too many wickets in the first six overs.

Australia captain George Bailey was delighted with the World Cup in Sri Lanka starting next week.

"It was a great win," he said. "We've worked really hard since the opening game, we were good the other night and tonight we were better.

"Momentum is important and confidence is important but now we have got to go out and replicate that in Sri Lanka."

After Australia reached 168 for seven, Pakistan's top-order folded in limp fashion against aggressive bowling from fast bowlers Mitchell Starc (3-11) and Patrick Cummins (3-15).

The Australia total was founded on their highest partnership for all wickets in T20Is, 111 between openers David Warner (59) and Shane Watson (47) from just 64 balls.

Spinners Shoaib Malik and Raza Hasan were both hit for three sixes in an over and Warner and Watson struck 11 sixes between them.

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was a key figure in reining back Australia after that breakneck start, with only 63 runs coming from the final 10 overs after Bailey's team looked on course for a score in excess of 200.

When Pakistan batted Starc began the rot, removing Imran Nazir lbw for a single and Cummins struck with his second ball, inducing Hafeez (nine) to drive loosely to extra cover.

Three balls later Cummins had his second wicket as he crashed through a Shoaib Malik drive to bowl the former captain for a duck and Kamran Akmal also failed to score when he got a leading edge to a Starc delivery to be caught at mid-off.

Umar Akmal's dismissal reduced Pakistan to 19 for five in the sixth over and from then on it became nothing more than a face-saving operation for the side batting second.

For Australia, the win also took them back above Ireland into ninth place in the ICC T20 rankings ahead of their match against the Associate side in Sri Lanka on Sept. 19.

David Warner and Shane Watson hit eleven sixes between them to help Australia score 168-7 in the third and final Twenty20 international against Pakistan here on Monday.

Warner made 34-ball 59 with six sixes and a four and Watson hammered five sixes and a boundary during his 32-ball 47 to put on Australia's best opening stand of 111 in all T20s after they were put into bat at Dubai Stadium.

Pakistan enjoy an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

The Australian openers went berserk from the eighth over when Watson hit Shoaib Malik for three towering sixes and from the other end Warner hit left-armer Raza Hasan for as many sixes in the ninth.

Even the successful Saeed Ajmal was hit for two sixes as Australian openers hit nine sixes in the space of 19 balls, bringing the second fifty off just 15 balls.

Paceman Yasir Arafat, who replaced Sohail Tanveer as the only change to the line-up, had both the openers in successive overs to put brakes on the Australian innings, finishing with 2-30.

Glenn Maxwell chipped in with a 20-ball 27 with three fours and six.

Ajmal finished with 2-19, taking his tally to 60 wickets -- the most by any bowler in Twenty20 cricket.