Lahroe
\nPakistan opener Saim Ayub\u2019s all-round performance helped Green Shirts secure a 22-run victory over Australia in the first T20I of three-match series at Lahore\u2019s Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday.
\nAyub backed his blazing 40-run knock with two wickets to help the Green Shirts to defend a modest total 168.
\nSet to chase 169, Australia\u2019s batting unit faltered and could accumulate 146\/8 in 20 overs.
\nThe touring side got off to a briefly flamboyant start to the pursuit, with their opening pair of Matthew Short and stand-in captain raising 21 runs off the first 10 deliveries before Ayub gave Pakistan the breakthrough by dismissing the former, who made a four-ball five.
\nThe 23-year-old all-rounder struck again in his next over to get rid of Head, who smashed two sixes and as many fours on his way to a 13-ball 23.
\nFollowing Ayub\u2019s twin strike, Cameron Green and Matt Renshaw (15) attempted to anchor the run chase by knitting a 40-run partnership for the third wicket, which culminated with the latter\u2019s run out on the first delivery of the eighth over.
\nHis dismissal sparked a collapse as Australia began to lose wickets at an alarming rate, including that of mainstay Green, who remained their top-scorer with a cautious 36 off 31 deliveries, and consequently slipped to 112\/8 in 15.4 overs.
\nNo.10 batter Xavier Bartlett then played a quickfire cameo at the backend, scoring an unbeaten 34 off 25 deliveries, but his efforts were insufficient to steer Australia over the line.
\nFor Pakistan, Abrar Ahmed and Ayub claimed two wickets each, while Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz chipped in with one apiece.
\nPakistan captain Salman Ali Agha\u2019s decision to bat first backfired as his team\u2019s batting unit could accumulate 168\/8 in their allotted 20 overs.
\nThe home side got off to the worst possible start to their innings as they lost opener Sahibzada Farhan for a diamond duck.
\nFollowing the early stutter, Saim Ayub and captain Agha stabilised the innings by putting together 74 runs for the second wicket.
\nZampa broke the crucial partnership on the fourth delivery of the eighth over by dismissing Ayub, who remained the top-scorer for Pakistan with a 22-ball 40, featuring three fours and two sixes.
\nAgha was then involved in a brief 12-run partnership for the third wicket with Babar Azam until falling victim to Xavier Bartlett in the 10th over and walked back after scoring 39 off 27 deliveries, laced with four sixes and a four.
\nBabar was then joined by Fakhar Zaman in the middle, and the duo batted cautiously to add 37 runs for the fourth wicket before Zampa struck, dismissing the former, who made 20-ball 24 with the help of one six and a four.
\nBabar\u2019s dismissal followed two more setbacks for Pakistan as Zaman (10) and wicketkeeper batter Usman Khan (10) perished in quick succession, bringing the total down to 149\/6 in 17.5 overs.
\nAll-rounder Mohammad Nawaz then added valuable runs at the backend with an unbeaten 15 off 14 deliveries amid Pakistan\u2019s disappointing death batting, during which they lost two more wickets.
\nAdam Zampa spearheaded Australia\u2019s bowling attack with economical bowling figures of 4\/24 in his four overs, while Bartlett and debutant Mahli Beardman bagged two wickets each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lahroe Pakistan opener Saim Ayub\u2019s all-round performance helped Green Shirts secure a 22-run victory over Australia in the first T20I of three-match series at Lahore\u2019s Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday. Ayub backed his blazing 40-run knock with two wickets to help the Green Shirts to defend a modest total 168. Set to chase 169, Australia\u2019s batting …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":92960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92990,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92979\/revisions\/92990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}