Australia head to Tasmania looking for a series whitewash in the third and final T20I on Monday night. Hobart has produced some high scoring games in recent times, so we should be in for plenty of action to conclude the white ball action!
Australia vs Pakistan: 3rd T20I Preview & Betting Tips
SCG, Monday 18th November, 7:00pm AEDT
Australia
Squad: Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Spencer Johnson, Glenn Maxwell, Josh Philippe, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
Australia’s bowlers spearheaded the host’s to victory on Saturday night in Sydney, defending just 148 to take an unassailable 2-0 series lead. Spencer Johnson led the way with a magnificent 5/26, while Adam Zampa was excellent through the middle overs taking 2/19.
Australia restricted Pakistan to 4/44 after 9.3 overs where the game looked over, until Usman Khan had Pakistan in a strong position heading into the final five overs. Johnson was reintroduced into the attack taking the wickets of Khan and Abbas Afridi in the 16th over, which was ultimately the match changing over. Nathan Ellis recovered from a poor 18th over, to seal the win in the 20th over as he conceded just 2 runs.
Australia’s batting followed an identical trend to how they’ve performed in four of the five white ball games so far this summer. The Aussies got off to a blistering start thanks to Matt Short (32 off 17) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (20 off 9), which saw the home side get to 0/52 after 3.2 overs. Another woeful Fraser-McGurk dismissal triggered a collapse of 3/4 in 9 balls, which allowed Pakistan to get back in the game. Aaron Hardie (28 off 23) and Glenn Maxwell (21 off 20) were the only other batsmen to score at better than a run a ball, as Australia crawled to 9/147.
Pakistan
Squad: Mohammad Rizwan, Abbas Afridi, Agha Salman, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Irfan Khan, Jahandad Khan, Naseem Shah, Omair Yousuf, Sahibzada Farhan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Usman Khan
Pakistan’s top order failed to back up their bowlers, which ultimately was the difference in the 13 run defeat in game two. Muhammad Rizwan (16 off 26), Babar Azam (3 off 3), Sahibzada Farhan (5 off 10) and Salman Ali Agha (0 off 1) had Pakistan in a major hole at 4/44 in the 9th over, seeing the required run rate climb to over 10 in a chase that started with a required run rate of 7.35.
Usman Khan (52 off 28) and Mohammad Irfan Khan (37* off 28) gave Pakistan a chance to with their highest ever T20I scores, however they were left with too much to do. Had Pakistan had any sort of burst in the powerplay, they would’ve won comfortably.
Once again Haris Rauf was brilliant with the ball taking 4/22 after coming on when Australia were 0/48 after 3 overs. Rauf was backed up by Abbas Afridi (3/17) and Sufiyan Muqeem (2 for 21), in what was a remarkable effort to restrict Australia to 99 runs from the last 17 overs of the innings.
Match Prediction: Bellerive Oval will provide a much easier batting surface throughout 20 overs than what the SCG proved to be after the powerplay finished. The last T20I played in Hobart in February of this year saw Australia and the West Indies both pass 200. It was one of the highest scoring venues in BBL13, so expect plenty of fireworks with the bat on Monday night.
This will be a high scoring affair, so it will come down to the batting unit that can make the most of the conditions. Australia have shown a much higher ceiling with the bat in both games this series, and if they can limit the impact Haris Rauf has with the ball, they will produce a big score that their in-from bowling attack will be able to contain.
Australia to Win
$1.46 (2 Units)
Prop Bet
Coming into the final game of Pakistan’s white ball tour of Australia, the tour will be remembered for Haris Rauf’s outstanding performances with the ball. Rauf has taken 3/67, 5/29, 2/24, 1/21 and 4/22, taking the most wickets for Pakistan in three of the five games across the T20I and ODI series.
Haris Rauf Pakistan Top Bowler
$3.80
