Third T20I: Australia defeat Pakistan by 10 wickets, win series

Australia registered a massive 10-wicket victory over Pakistan in the third T20I match here on Friday.

With this victory, Australia won the three-match T20I series against Pakistan by 2-0 as the first match was washed out.

Chasing a small target of 107 runs, Australia got off to a scintillating start as openers Aaron Finch and David Warner struck regular boundaries.

Both were too good for Pakistan bowlers as the visitors failed to clinch even a single wicket. Finch scored a half-century during the chase. The skipper played a knock of 52 runs while Warner scored 48 runs to help Australia chase the target with 49 balls remaining.

Earlier, after being asked to bat first, Pakistan had a very poor start as Mitchell Starc sent two of their batsmen back to the pavilion in the third over. First, skipper Babar Azam was given LBW and on the very next ball, Mohammad Rizwan was bowled.

The other opener, Imam-ul-Haq, was then dismissed by Sean Abbott, reducing Pakistan to 22/3. Iftikhar Ahmed and Haris Sohail were the next batsmen.

Ahmed played brilliantly as he struck three boundaries to Starc in the sixth over. Both formed a 32-run partnership before Ashton Agar got hold of Sohail (8).

The next two batsmen, Khushdil Shah and Imad Wasim, failed to form a good partnership with Ahmed as they scored eight and six runs respectively. Kane Richardson then ended Ahmed's 45-run innings as the latter gave away an easy catch to Starc.

Australia did not let Pakistan gain any momentum and restricted the visitors to 106/8.

The hosts will now take on Pakistan for a two-match Test series, starting from November 21.

Brief scores: Australia 109/0 (Aaron Finch 52*, David Warner 48*, Mohammad Hasnain 0-32) defeated Pakistan 106/8 (Iftikhar Ahmed 45, Imam-ul-Haq 14, Kane Richardson 3-18) by 10 wickets.