HOBART: Marcus Stoinis slammed five huge sixes in an unbeaten 61 as Australia crushed Pakistan by seven wickets in Hobart on Monday to secure a 3-0 T20 series whitewash.

Chasing a meagre 118, the hosts hit the target in the 12th over to hand Pakistan a reality check after the visitors won the preceding ODI series 2-1.

Stoinis was unstoppable once he got going, also blasting five fours in his 27-ball masterclass.

“It’s been a great week, we had a lot of fun as a group,” said Josh Inglis, who led a second-string Australia squad in absence of, among others, T20 captain Mitchell Marsh. “It’s really nice to get another win and go 3-0 up.

“When he’s going like that, it’s really hard to stop,” he added of Stoinis. “One of those sixes was probably the biggest I’ve seen.”

The match at Bellerive Oval was a dead rubber after Australia won a rain-hit match in Brisbane by 29 runs and then in Sydney by 13 runs.

After opting to bat, Pakistan raced to 62-1 before crumbling to 117 all out in the 19th over with Babar Azam top-scoring on 41 and Aaron Hardie taking 3-21.

Jake Fraser-McGurk began the run chase with consecutive boundaries from Shaheen Shah Afridi before the speedster dismissed Matt Short for two, caught at mid-on by Irfan Khan.

Fraser-McGurk (18) followed next over, undone by the sheer pace of Jahandad Khan in another mis-fire by the 22-year-old.

But Inglis kept the scoreboard ticking over alongside Stoinis, who let rip in the ninth over, punishing Haris Rauf for 20, including a massive six that landed on the stadium roof.

Their 55-run partnership ended when Inglis scooped Abbas Afridi to Haris on 27, which brought Tim David to the crease. He was bystander to Stoinis, who brought up his fifth T20 half-century with another giant six before seeing them home.

“There’s lots of positives, the way some of the players batted and bowled, these youngsters will come good,” said Salman Ali Agha, Pakistan’s skipper for the night with Mohammad Rizwan rested.

“It’s a big achievement for us to win a one-day series here after 22 years, we could have done better in the T20 series but we’ll come back stronger.”

Sahibzada Farhan opened the Pakistan batting with Babar in the absence of Rizwan.

But on a chilly evening, he lasted just seven balls before top-edging a short one from Spencer Johnson — fresh from taking five wickets in Sydney — to Xavier Bartlett.

Babar produced a series of elegant strokes as he and Haseeb­ullah Khan put on a quickfire 44 for the second wicket.

But Haseebullah was no match for Adam Zampa’s spin, collecting an outside edge on 24 to Short.

Pakistan’s woes mounted with Usman Khan (3) caught on the ropes after slogging Hardie and Salman trapped lbw by the same bowler for one.

It left them reeling on 72-4 at the halfway mark and when Zampa bowled Babar and Haseebullah (10) was needlessly run out they were in deep trouble.

Shaheen Shah Afridi blasted the only six of the innings, but didn’t last as the tailenders were mopped up. Salman said Pakistan should have done better after their strong start with the bat.

“I think in the middle overs, we didn’t capitalise on the start,” he said.

SCOREBOARD

PAKISTAN:

Sahibzada Farhan c Bartlett b Johnson 9

Babar Azam b Zampa 41

Haseebullah Khan c Short b Zampa 24

Usman Khan c Ellis b Hardie 3

Salman Ali Agha lbw Hardie 1

Irfan Khan run out 10

Abbas Afridi c Short b Hardie 1

Jahandad Khan c Stoinis b Ellis 5

Shaheen Shah Afridi c Inglis b Bartlett 16

Haris Rauf not out 0

Sufiyan Muqeem b Johnson 1

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-4, NB-1) 6

TOTAL (all out, 18.1 overs) 117

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-17 (Farhan), 2-61 (Haseebullah), 3-64 (Usman), 4-70 (Salman), 5-91 (Babar), 6-92 (Irfan), 7-92 (Abbas), 8-116 (Jahandad), 9-116 (Shaheen), 10-117 (Muqeem)

BOWLING: Bartlett 3-0-25-1; Johnson 3.1-0-24-2 (1w); Stoinis 1-0-15-0 (1w); Ellis 3-0-20-1; Zampa 4-0-11-2; Hardie 4-1-21-3 (2w, 1nb)

AUSTRALIA:

M. Short c Irfan b Shaheen 2

J. Fraser-McGurk c Usman b Jahandad 18

J. Inglis c Haris b Abbas 27

M. Stoinis not out 61

T. David not out 7

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-1, NB-1) 3

TOTAL (for three wickets, 11.2 overs) 118

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16 (Short), 2-30 (Fraser-McGurk), 3-85 (Inglis)

DID NOT BAT: G. Maxwell, A. Hardie, X. Bartlett, S. Johnson, N. Ellis, A. Zampa

BOWLING: Shaheen 3-0-43-1 (1w); Jahandad 3-0-17-1; Haris 3-0-34-0; S. Muqeem 1-0-9-0; Abbas 1.2-0-14-1 (1nb)

RESULT: Australia won by seven wickets

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Marcus Stoinis

SERIES: Australia won three-match series 3-0.

MAN-OF-THE-SERIES: Spencer Johnson

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2024