ANI
Brisbane
Xavier Bartlett and Nathan Ellis shined with the ball as Australia sealed a 29-run victory over Pakistan in the truncated 1st T20I at The Gabba in Brisbane on Thursday.
The match was reduced to a seven-overs a side game after rain played a spoilsport before the start.
Pakistan won the toss and opted to field. Australia openers Matthew Short (7 runs from 4 balls, 1 six) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (9 runs from 5 balls, 2 fours) could only make a 16-run partnership.
Pakistan seamer Haris Rauf removed Short in the second over and Naseem Shah dismissed Fraser-McGurk in the third over.
After the two dismissals, Glenn Maxwell (43 runs from 19 balls, 5 fours and 3 sixes) displayed a blitz performance with a strike rate of 226.32. He added crucial runs on the board in the seven-over game. Later, Marcus Stoinis (21 runs from 7 balls, 2 fours and 1 six) and Josh Inglis stayed unbeaten on the crease and powered the Aussies to 93/4.
Abbas Afridi picked up two wickets and led the Pakistan bowling attack.
While Naseem and Haris picked up one wicket each in their respective spells.
During the run chase, the Pakistan batters struggled to score runs on the board infront of the Aussie bowling attack. The top and middle order failed miserably.
Xavier Bartlett and Nathan Ellis led the Australia bowling attack after they picked up three wickets in their respective spells. Adam Zampa bagged two wickets in his one-over spell.
ScorescColor:> Australia 93/7 in 7 overs (Glenn Maxwell 43, Marcus Stoinis 21*; Abbas Afridi 2/9) beat Pakistan 64/9 (Abbas Afridi 20*, Haseebullah Khan 12; Nathan Ellis 3/9).