Australia 118 for 3 (Stoinis 61*, Inglis 27, Afridi 1-14) batted Pakistan 117 all out (Babar 41, Hardie 3-21, Zampa 2-11) by 7 wickets

Pakistan’s bright start

Pakistan came out with clear intent after showing very little of it when trying to chase down Australia in the previous game. Sahibzada Farhan fell early, but what Pakistan were trying to do was obvious: exploit the Powerplay. Even Babar, who was usually a slow starter, found the boundary from the first ball and continued in that trajectory. Haseebullah Khan rode a bit of luck, his edges found the boundary but that too was a product of flashing hard. The result saw Pakistan race to 58 – their highest powerplay score in an innings against Australia.

Zampa’s Sorcery

Zampa’s impeccable control and skill make him the only wizard missing in this format. For Pakistan today he was also their torturer – toying with the batsmen at will, varying pace, line and variations, all the while keeping the backs in doubt.

It took him just five balls before he made sure Haseebullah’s luck ran out, flashing outside off stump to find short third. In his third over, he put an end to Babar’s entertaining knock, adjusting the flight of his delivery as he watched the batter run down the wicket and clean up his stumps.

Even when he didn’t take wickets, he was pressed at the other end. Pakistan’s stand-in captain Salman Ali Agha played five dot balls against him before he was put out of his misery by Aaron Hardie in the following run, and his figures of 4-0-11-2 did not flatter him.

Pakistan’s balance sheet

It’s hard to expect those players to play high-risk cricket when you simply don’t have enough batsmen. Pakistan had clearly informed the team that they expected aggression from the start, even from players to whom it does not come naturally. Usman Khan tends to take a couple of balls before he is able to fire, but he came out from ball one looking to strike – even when the shot was never on. It never looked tenable, as was demonstrated when he bowled his fourth delivery, sparking a Pakistani collapse.

Each wicket fall was made all the more worrying for the visitors because of the extreme length of their tail; they effectively ran out of batting when the fifth wicket fell, with Abbas Afridi out at no. 7. It also proved to be a problem for them in the second match and it is still a problem they need to find a way to solve.

Australia gets on top of Haris – finally

A recurring theme in this series is Haris Rauf coming out and dominating the Australian batter he finds at the other end. This has been particularly the case for Glenn Maxwell, but Stoinis said that after the match he told Haris that this was the only time “one of us” got Haris’ number.

And Stoinis did it in riveting fashion. At the end of the eighth over, Australia were 57 for 2 and Pakistan still thought they had time to inject danger into the game. But the ninth over had him hitting Haris for two fours and two sixes off the first four balls, with the last six flying all the way out of Bellerive Oval. That began an innings in which Stoinis plundered 45 off his next 12 deliveries, including a 25-run over from Shaheen Afridi. The following over, got Abbas Stoinis caught at deep square leg but had overstepped. 61 runs came from the last 21 balls to draw curtains on the match and the series.