A hamstring injury to Glenn Maxwell was the only dampener as Marcus Stoinis helped Australia thrash Pakistan by seven wickets to seal a clean sweep in their three-game Twenty20 series.
The all-rounder Maxwell limped off with a suspected low-grade issue in Hobart on Monday night after pulling up sore while fielding. He was not required to bat and will have almost a month to recover for the Melbourne Stars’ Big Bash League season opener against Perth on 15 December.
After losing the toss, Australia skittled Pakistan for 117 in the penultimate over before cruising to victory with more than eight overs to spare. Stoinis was slow to get going before whacking five fours and five sixes, including one which reached the roof of the members’ stand at Ninja Stadium, in an unbeaten 61 off 27 balls. It was Australia’s first sweep of a T20 series against Pakistan.
Earlier, Aaron Hardie’s career-best white ball figures of three for 21 and Adam Zampa’s ultra economical two for 11 ripped the heart out of the Pakistan innings. The tourists, who rested the captain and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan and quick Naseem Shah, got off to a promising start and were 61 for one in the seventh over. But it fell away quickly in a horror collapse through the middle overs.
Babar Azam (41 from 28) top-scored but could not hold his nerve and was bowled trying to hit Zampa in the 13th over.
After picking up the best T20I figures by an Australian quick at the SCG on Saturday, Spencer Johnson took two for 24 and ended the Pakistan innings by bowling Sufiyan Muqeem. Johnson topped the series wicket tally with eight.
It came after a tumultuous 24 hours for Pakistan, who were forced to deny a report that the red-ball coach and interim white ball coach Jason Gillespie had been sacked.
Australia lost the openers Matthew Short (two) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (18) inside the first four overs of the chase before the captain Josh Inglis (27) steadied the ship and Stoinis finished the job in style.
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There were lengthy queues for tickets outside the ground after the match had started due to an issue with the Ticketek website. Attention for Australia now turns to the first Test of the summer against India, which begins on Friday in Perth.