Australia pulled off an impressive comeback win in the second T20I against Pakistan in Sydney on Saturday. The fast bowler Spencer Johnson produced his career-best figures to help Australia register a 13-run win and a home series win. Spencer Johnson rattled visitors Pakistan with a splendid 5/26 in the 2nd T20I held at the SCG on Saturday.
Spencer Johnson stole the show as the Aussies have sealed the three-match series 2-0 with a game to spare. Notably, Spencer Johnson is now the second Aussie pacer with a five-wicket haul versus PAK in T20Is.
Openers Jake Fraser-McGurk and Matthews Short gave Australia a stunning start in powerplay but the hosts were restricted to just 147 total after Haris Rauf’s 4 for 22 spell. Pakistan seemed on track for a win with Usman Khan’s bringing his maiden T20I fifty but Spencer Johnson took 5 wickets for 26 to bowl out Mohammad Rizwan’s side to 134.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : The Sydney Crickey Ground will pose a certain challenge for the batters as they will find less pace and bounce coming onto the bat. This will also concern the pacers but they can leverage taking pace out of the ball. The weather forecast suggests a 40 percent chance of rain during the game.
Toss : Australia skipper Josh Inglis won the toss and chose to bat with no changes in the playing XI. Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan bowling first made one change in the playing XI bringing in Sufiyan Muqeem for Haseebullah Khan.
Haris Rauf’s 4-fer restricts Australia to 147 for 9 in 20 overs
Australia began the game as if they had drawn inspiration from India’s batting show against South Africa on Friday. Shaheen Afridi was bowling into the arc as if feeding a slot machine, and Matthew Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk were only too happy to oblige. Naseem Shah similarly failed to keep it out of the arc, and 15 balls into the game, Australia had sped along to 47, having hit five fours and three sixes already.
As Pakistan have learnt over the white-ball tour, when in doubt, give Rauf the ball, and that worked the charm again. He was the only man who could arrest the slide, and it didn’t take him long. A pacy bouncer that Fraser-McGurk couldn’t get on top off and slogged to the cover fielder punctured Australia, before a leading edge sent Josh Inglis on his way.
Despite the two-paced nature of the surface, the target appeared achievable. That Pakistan managed to restrict Australia to under 150 after conceding 50 runs off just 3.1 overs was down to Haris Rauf’s damage control. He struck twice in his opening over, first dismissing Jake Fraser-McGurk, who had started the innings with a flurry of boundaries and sixes against Shaheen Afridi, and then removing Josh Inglis for a duck a ball later.
Abbas Afridi, replacing an expensive Naseem Shah at the other end, found success immediately by breaching Matthew Short’s defenses with a clever slower ball after the opener had raced to 32 off 17 balls. The innings slowed significantly after the PowerPlay, with Pakistan seemingly in control barring some fielding lapses, including at least three dropped catches which proved to be the difference in the end.
Abbas Afridi – who bowled beautifully all innings – struck with the slower ball to dispatch Short, and suddenly, it turned into an even contest. After the first 15 balls of the powerplay had leaked 47 wicketless runs, the last 21 balls saw just 14 scored, with Australia’s top three back.
Aaron Hardie played a composed knock towards the end, rotating strike effectively and striking a six off Naseem to finish with 28 off 23 balls. Meanwhile, Haris Rauf added the wickets of Xavier Bartlett and Tim David to his tally, finishing with figures of 4 for 22, the best T20I bowling performance against Australia in Australia. His efforts compensated for lackluster outings from Shaheen and Naseem, who leaked 83 runs in their combined eight overs.
Pakistan tend to take one of their most famous characteristics each game, and turn the dial up to 11. Sometimes it’s the unpredictability, at other times it’s the fast bowling. Today, they went for the comic ineptitude in the field they have picked up a reputation for. The warning signs were there from the first over, which was when Naseem made a mess of a Fraser-McGurk top edge, and it only got worse from there.
Salman Agha put Marcus Stoinis down off Rauf, while Shaheen reprieved Glenn Maxwell off Sufiyan Muqeem in the eighth over. Rauf made a mess of an effort in the field off Naseem that went for four, while Babar Azam put Tim David down before the batter went on to get ten runs off the next three balls. Those were just the highlights and, in a low-scoring game, it all counted.
Spencer Johnsons career best 5-fer seals series for Australia with one match to go
With a great chance to square the series, Pakistan stumbled early, losing captain Babar Azam, who flicked a length delivery from Xavier Bartlett to deep square leg. Mohammad Rizwan and Sahibzada Farhan struggled to break free, with the latter departing during the PowerPlay as Pakistan limped to 40/2 after nine overs.
Pakistan looked at the way Australia had been dragged back and perhaps thought “this won’t happen to us”. It didn’t, because they never got going at the front end of the innings in the first place. They did lose Babar (pick-up flick to deep square leg) and Sahibzada Farhan (pull straight to deep midwicket) to careless shots, but for much of the first nine overs, there were scarcely any attempts to hit a boundary.
Mohammad Rizwan struggled through an especially curious innings where he was either happy with dot balls or poked the ball away for singles. It wasn’t until the tenth over that a boundary off the bat was finally struck as Rizwan cleared his front leg and slog swept Spencer Johnson over cow corner to pick up four.
But Rizwan attempted the same shot off the next ball, only to miscue it for David to take a superb catch diving forward. By this time, the asking rate was approaching ten, and Pakistan’s top order had written cheques they unfairly expected their lower order to honor. The breakthrough came courtesy of Spencer Johnson, who removed Rizwan and Salman Agha in a double-wicket over. At 40/4, Pakistan needed a rescue act, which came through a 58-run stand between Irfan and Usman Khan for the fifth wicket.
Usman reached his fifty off 35 balls, including a six off Adam Zampa, but fell to a short ball from Spencer Johnson. The pacer struck again two balls later to remove Abbas Afridi and complete a remarkable five-wicket haul. From 106/6, Pakistan quickly slid to 107/8 as Zampa dismissed Shaheen and Naseem in one over. Irfan’s counterattack in the 18th over against Ellis, featuring two boundaries and a six, kept Pakistan in the hunt, but Ellis returned in the final over to seal the game for Australia.
When Spencer Johnson began the innings with a wide down leg side that went for five, and followed it up with a wide outside off that would have done the same had first slip not done brilliantly, any comparisons with the other Johnson, Mitchell, would have only pertained to the phase in his career that spawned the unfortunate “he bowls to the left, he bowls to the right” chant. But it took the South Australian no time to turn his fortunes around, controlling his high pace and exploiting sideways movement beautifully to rip through Pakistan. Farhan’s soft dismissal was only the beginning, and Pakistan were dented during the middle overs, and that proved telling.
Rizwan fell in Spencer Johnson’s return spell before Salman fell the very next ball, leaving Pakistan’s ultra-long tail one wicket away from being exposed. When Usman and Irfan put up a 58-run stand, it was once again Johnson who struck, taking two more in an over when his extra pace saw Usman smear a pull into the air before Abbas was dispatched in similar fashion. It allowed Adam Zampa’s double-wicket over effectively seal the game despite Irfan’s presence.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Josh Inglis the winning Australia skipper said : We started really well. Boys at the top got us to a flier. It was tough through the middle as they adapted to conditions really well, bowled cutters and into the wicket. We thought we were there and thereabout. I thought the way the bowlers went about it was brilliant. There’s so many options in this team I can go to. Every time I turned to Johnson tonight, he got a pole.
Really happy for him. The way they played tonight was really good (the two openers). Put their bowlers under pressure and got us off to a flier. I need to sleep – it’s tough work this captaincy. Quick turnaround – we’ll get there tomorrow and have a look at the wicket. That drop catch – I was thinking more of the captaincy than the keeping. It’s tough. But it’s something I’m keen to learn about and hopefully grow.
Mohammad Rizwan the losing Pakistan skipper said : Bowlers bowled really well. But if you drop crucial catches, it will cost you always. We all know Australia is not an easy team, especially in these conditions. We all know pitch wasn’t easy to bat. Catches were crucial. Haris loves Australia because of the pace and bounce. Not sure about the changes for the third game. Will see what the situation demands.
Spencer Johnson Player of the Match for his 5-fer said : It’s every kid’s dream to play for Australia. It’s something I don’t take lightly and very privileged to wear the green and gold. Never know when your last game is going to be. Every game is a bonus and hopefully I can play a couple more.
It’s probably a different bowling unit than we’re used to for Australia and hopefully we’re doing a good enough job. We used the conditions well. It was summed up early with Bartlett – how he was nipping it around. I didn’t get it right in the first over but the communication between us three pacers helped us get over the line.
It looked like it would be a run fest, but then it evolved into a low-scoring thriller. In a shapeshifting T20I in Sydney, Australia adapted better than Pakistan, holding their nerve to defend a modest total of 147 and edging to a 13-run victory, which gave them the T20I series.
Spencer Johnson was the star of the show with 5 for 26, taking wickets at the top and the end and keeping Pakistan penned in, but he had plenty of support from his mates in a disciplined bowling effort. It was matched by a first innings where six batters reached double-figures, the clump of cameos ensuring the batters gave their bowlers enough to work with.
Pakistan looked like they were on track for a hammering when Australia reached 50 in 3.1 overs – the fastest they have ever got to the mark in a T20I. But Pakistan, led inevitably by Haris Rauf, hit back through the middle overs. However, their fielding lapses proved costly, and in a game of fine margins, that proved to be one of the points of difference between the sides.
They will also rue their lack of intent early on with the bat. Pakistan limped along for the first half of the innings and left themselves too much to do at the back end. Usman Khan – who scored his first T20I half-century – and Irfan Khan made a fist of it to get within 13 runs of victory, but just couldn’t do enough to undo the damage of the first part of the innings. Australia made sure they did just enough things better than Pakistan, and on that count, ended up worthy winners.
Australia take the series with a game to spare. The target was only 148 tonight, but it was a big struggle for Pakistan on a two-paced pitch in Sydney. It took them until the 10th over to get their first boundary, meaning that the required rate had climbed over 10 at the halfway stage.
What followed was a really good effort from Usman Khan who brought up his first T20I fifty. Irfan Khan then took over after his dismissal with some good hits. But their combined efforts weren’t enough. Spencer Johnson was brilliant this evening with a five-wicket haul as he hit the pitch hard and made the most of the variable nature of it.
So Australia have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the T20I series. The two innings that played out today were in contrast to each other. The hosts smashed as many as 37 in their first two overs before the innings went downhill as Pakistan stormed back through Haris Rauf. Pakistan, on the other hand, took an age to get going.
Their first boundary came in the 10th over, by which time they left a lot to do for the likes of Usman Khan and Irfan Khan. Wasn’t a straightforward pitch at the SCG and scoring quickly was hard work because of the two-paced nature of it. The teams will now move to Hobart for the final T20I on Monday.