- Opening match of the series abandoned with Australia 39-0 chasing a rain adjusted 119
Pakistan escape with a no-result, just 11 deliveries from conceding a loss had the rain come later. Perhaps Finch should have hit fewer sixes and just knocked back some dot balls. A fortune-teller would have been handy. Mind you, Pakistan got the raw end of a few deals today: they were called off for rain just when they were getting going, and could have rattled up a decent score with Babar and Asif in the final five overs that they didn’t get to face. They were called for a short run and for a no-ball that were both incorrect calls, by the looks of replays.
Whatever the result, they know they’ve been outplayed, but they get to escape with a rusty first game and head towards the second match of this series.
The radar looks pretty bad for the next little while. Might clear in half an hour or so. Currently this game would be a no result if there’s no further play. Australia need another 1.5 overs to be bowled to win on the DLS method.
And it’s raining again, after one ball of the fourth over.
3rd over: Australia 39-0 (Warner 2, Finch 35) Mohammad Irfan to continue, short, and Finch destroys him for six! Huge hit, got under that one and pounded it back into the stands over midwicket! That was towering. So Irfan pitches up in response, and Finch drives gorgeously through long-on for four! Bash followed by caress.
Irfan is losing his rag now. Bowls short again, this time outside off, and Finch cuts him for four! Lofted cut, over point, waited for it and timed it perfectly. And it’s a no-ball! So it’s a free hit, and Finch uses every fibre of muscle in his nuggety body to heave that for six more. Even higher than the first one, in the same direction, and landing with a thud.
2nd over: Australia 13-0 (Warner 2, Finch 10) Mohammad Amir will take the other end. Left-arm swing, a lovely operator when conditions suit his movement through the air. He’s trying to get Warner on the pads, resulting in a single and a leg bye. In between times Finch drives him nicely through the covers for four. You’ve got to pitch up as a bowler of Amir’s type, so that’s the risk. He bowled some gorgeous opening spells with the white Kooka during the World Cup in England.
1st over: Australia 5-0 (Warner 1, Finch 4) Mohammad Irfan will kick off, the seven-footer from the Pakistan team who has spent a couple of years coming back from injury. He bowled in Australia in the 2015 World Cup and was injured then. He has an awkward gait, creaks up to the crease with his giant legs thudding. Nothing smooth or comfortable about it, but it’s equally awkward when he zooms the ball down at pace from that height. He bowls a couple of near-beamers in the over, one at Warner and another at Finch, who are both startled and leap and flinch, and look to the square leg umpire, but both times the ball just dipped to waist height as it reached them. Not nice. There’s one boundary from the over, when Finch gets a short ball that does bounce before reaching him, and carves a cut for four.
Pakistan’s rain-adjusted total is deemed to be 118, given they lost late overs where they would have expected to accelerate. That’s judged from their existing run rate and their wickets in hand, using historical match data run through the Duckworth Lewis Stern system.
So after an hour’s rain delay, we’re now having a 20-minute innings break. With a good chance of more rain ahead. Hard to believe we still run up against these obvious problems with the playing conditions. Have a 10-minute changeover like in Tests, get back out there and play, and get a couple more overs in.
It will be somewhere around 120, we’ll get the formal announcement shortly. Australia came back from the rain break with 14 balls to bowl. Only one boundary came from those. They’ll be delighted at the result.
15 overs: Pakistan 107-5 (Babar 59, Iftikhar 1) Five balls left, and the new batsman is Iftikhar Ahmed. Babar has a big heave at Starc first ball, across the line and misses entirely. The umpire says not out lbw, and Australia review. The ball is missing leg stump comfortably, having hit him on the back thigh as he cleared his front leg to swing. They get awarded a leg bye. Iftikhar can only hit a run to cover next ball.
Three balls to go. What will Starc do? Drops short! And pulled for six! Lovely bit of timing there from Babar Azam, against the full-pace bouncer. Flat over square leg, or just behind. That’s a proper six. Starc bowls length and Babar chips it onto the green between mid-on and mid-off, and hares back for two. Then Starc goes full for the last ball, and Babar can only dig it square for one!
Imad has to go from ball one, and he does. Normally caught Smith bowled Starc would imply a slips catch, but this is at long-on. Made decent contact with the straight drive but it falls inside the field of play.
14 overs: Pakistan 96-4 (Babar 50, Imad 0) One ball left in the over, the batsmen had crossed while Asif’s dismissal ball was in the air, so Babar faces it. Throws the bat outside off. Big edge. Four! That’s his fifty. It hasn’t been convincing: three boundaries from nicks, and his only six was nearly caught on the rope. But he’s got Pakistan some sort of score.
Suffocation works! The over starts with a nicely timed cut shot from Babar against Richardson, but there’s a sweeper to keep him to one run. Each bowler has a max of three overs now, so Cummins and Agar are already bowled out. Starc will bowl the last. Richardson bowls a short ball that Asif can’t catch up with! Over his right shoulder as he pulls, and lightly clips the helmet as it goes through. Superb defensive bowling so far from Australia. Richardson bangs the next into the wicket as well, and Asif can only flat-bat it on the bounce to long-off for a single. Babar flicks cleanly off his pads but again that deep square leg sweeper keeps it to one. And with the pressure high, Asif gets one in the slot, slogs across the line, toe-ends it a bit, and Agar streaming in off the rope at deep midwicket dives forward to take a great catch!
13 overs: Pakistan 89-3 (Babar 44, Asif 10) Two balls remaining in Zampa’s over as we get back underway. He darts it in at Babar’s legs, so that the batsman’s advance ends in nothing but a strike on the pad and a dot ball. Then Babar tries to heave to the leg side, but can’t get it cleanly and it bounces in front of deep square leg. One run to close out that delayed over.
The players are all huddled at the boundary edge, waiting to be allowed to continue.
Ok, we’re going to get on with things fairly soon in Sydney. The match has been reduced to 15 overs a side, and presumably Pakistan will have a rain adjustment of their eventual score with only 14 deliveries left to face.
The radar seems to be suggesting that the rain in Sydney will stop soon. Obviously then there will be a delay while they clean up the ground. We’re into the part of the afternoon where we’ll start losing overs now. And indeed, it looks like the rope buggies have started driving around as the rain stops at the SCG. Check back in a little while.
Still waiting. In the meantime, the Melbourne Stars have a mountain to climb in the WBBL. The Sixers have just done a real middle-finger job, batting through their innings without losing a wicket to set a target of 200. An unbeaten ton for Alyssa Healy alongside 87 not out for Ellyse Perry. Just rude.
Hopefully a short one, as it was earlier.
12.4 overs: Pakistan 88-3 (Babar 43, Asif 10) Zampa comes back, he’s bowling in fits and starts today. He might wish he was bowling in stops though. Drags the first ball short and Babar carves him gorgeously through backward point for four. Then Babar rotates strike, and Asif drops to one knee and pounds the ball high over wide long-on, deep into the Members Stand! Huge hit. It might have reached the clouds and caused a reaction, because the rain follows the ball back down.
12th over: Pakistan 76-3 (Babar 38, Asif 3) Finch brings himself into short leg for Cummins bowling against Asif. It works, too, as Cummins goes short three times and Asif barely dares to lay bat on him. Four singles from the over in the end. Pakistan have been slowed to a crawl.
11th over: Pakistan 72-3 (Babar 36, Asif 1) Babar swept a four from Agar before the wicket, but eight runs and a wicket still leaves it very much Australia’s over. Asif Ali comes in, who can strike a long ball. Pakistan need a big finish.
No good from Rizwan! It was time to attack, but Agar bowls well outside off, left-arm spin turning it away, but the right-hander still tries to flat-bat the ball over the leg side rather than driving over cover. There were runs on offer, but the shot was premeditated I fancy. Cummins at long-on holds the miscue.
10th over: Pakistan 64-2 (Babar 30, Rizwan 30) Gee Zampa’s bowled well in his comeback over. (Ay Zampa bowled pretty well too.) Hard to time shots against. Rizwan pulls a couple but not with timing. Several find the field. Four runs in total from the over.
9th over: Pakistan 59-2 (Babar 27, Rizwan 28) Babar decides it’s time to go! He’s been idling along but now he dances to Agar and hits him long down the ground for six. Smith dives for the catch down towards the rope and gets a hand on it, but he’s outside the field of play by the time his fingertips touch the ball, and has no chance to knock it back. Had he caught it, he would have landed outside the field. When Rizwan gets strike he crouches as though planning a reverse, then realises the ball is a bit short outside off and instead plays a kneeling uppercut for a run to short third man. Unorthodox.
8th over: Pakistan 50-2 (Babar 20, Rizwan 26) Slower short ball from Cummins this time, but Rizwan is well set up for it. He cleans up the pull shot, nicely struck with a crouch and a swivel to play behind square, but it’s saved on the rope to keep the scoring to two. Cummins goes full pace for the next one! Nasty lift, and it takes the shoulder of the bat and skews down towards third man! Saved, they run two, but umpire Gerard Abood calls them short on one of the runs. On the replay that was the wrong call, Rizwan did touch his bat in at the non-striker’s end. So Rizwan only gets one run for all of that, and is in the rare position of getting a single but keeping strike in the same over. A few more singles mean six from the over. Better hope it’s not a one-run margin today...
7th over: Pakistan 44-2 (Babar 19, Rizwan 21) Pakistan only going at around six an over, and that continues with Ashton Agar’s first. Bowling left-arm spin, most darts, he only goes for singles and a sliced Rizwan cut shot for two. Another good piece of running from the Pakistani keeper.
6th over: Pakistan 38-2 (Babar 17, Rizwan 17) Kane Richardson has Rizwan on a string against the slower-ball bouncer. Three dot balls in a row, and from the third Rizwan premeditates a scoop. Not a great option against a bowler who is so often off-pace. But Richardson doesn’t just take the pace off, he gets high bounce from a fullish length, outside off stump, and it trampolines way over Rizwan’s shot. Rizwan asks about a wide but considering he had moved a metre outside his stumps to chase that ball, it bounced right over him. Three singles from an excellent over to end the Powerplay.
5th over: Pakistan 35-2 (Babar 15, Rizwan 16) Pat Cummins’ turn now, and he starts gorgeously. Pace, accuracy. Babar gets another run to third man, but Rizwan is pinned down for a couple of balls, getting his feet out of the way nicely to try to whip a yorker but finding midwicket, then smothered for room on the shot and blunting it to cover. Eventually Cummins gets a bit straight and Rizwan can stab a run to midwicket, the Babar a similar shot for two runs before another glide to third man. Five from the over, Australia will take that every time.
4th over: Pakistan 30-2 (Babar 11, Rizwan 15) Big call here: Richardson created two wicket-taking chances in his first over, and the fielding restrictions are still in place, but Adam Zampa is going to replace Richardson with some leg-spin. What is Finch seeing here? A chance to make the Pakistanis force the pace with two wickets already gone and some pressure on? It works for the first two balls, as Rizwan strikes straight at cover, then sweeps to the main at backward square. The third goes straight back to the bowler, and by the fourth Rizwan has to take a risk, skipping down to Zampa to loft straight over the bowler for four. He gets the boundary but it wasn’t entirely cleanly hit. The next one is cleaner, charging again, inside out over cover for six! Not just over the rope but into the fence. Then a super bit of running to close the over, Rizwan groping across his front pad to knock the ball to midwicket but immediately calling “Two, two, two!” and making a lightning turn at the non-striker’s end to get back. A dozen from the over, though it started well. What does Finch think of that?
3rd over: Pakistan 18-2 (Babar 11, Rizwan 3) He doesn’t mind playing Australia, does Rizwan. Two centuries in the five-match ODI series earlier this year leading into the World Cup. That was in the Middle East though, so it’ll be a different operation here today. He gets off strike against Starc by calmly pushing a run. Even that is a pretty good early sign. It brings Babar on strike, and after he has an uncontrolled swat at Starc outside off, he drives the next ball with a straighter bat and gets a genuine edge for four! Through second slip that time, so you really can’t blame Aaron Finch for that one. The batting pair trade singles to finish their first decent over.
2nd over: Pakistan 11-2 (Babar 6, Rizwan 1) Two early wickets then, and the aggressive wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan comes to the crease. A right-hander now, and he uses Richardson’s natural length to fend away a single towards point to end the over.
Kane Richardson with the ball from the other end, having tied his long hair back today. His first ball is blocked by Babar, but the second is edged for four! Richardson immediately turns to stare at Finch, who didn’t have a slip in place for his opening bowler with the new ball! That was a simple catch for first slip. Now Finch moves himself back into that spot for the left-hander, after Babar knocks a run to square leg. Sohail tries to force a back-of-a-length ball straight but can’t get any timing. So he aims a filthy slog at the next ball, which was a bit short but he goes at it with almost a straight bat, and it skews high off the outside edge and lands with Smith at backward point again. Richardson gets his reward.
1st over: Pakistan 5-1 (Babar 1, Sohail 4) Mitchell Starc to begin with the ball for Australia. He starts outside off stump and Babar reaches for it, steering the ball with an angled blade down towards third man for one. The left-handed Fakhar comes on strike, and departs immediately. Haris Sohail in for the third ball, who made a great Test ton against Australia in Dubai last year, and played some brilliant knocks in the 50-over World Cup earlier this year. Starc shapes it away from him, another left-hander, and twice beats the outside edge. But he overpitches with the final ball, looking for the pad perhaps, and Sohail drives dead straight, in the air, past Starc’s left hand and almost through the umpire Paul Wilson for four. A dot ball ends the eventful over.
First ball duck, second ball of the match! Starc bowls outside off just back of a length with some swing. Fakhar reaches for the drive but the outswing takes the outside edge, thick, into the gully where Smith takes a direct catch to a very fast-travelling ball.
Babar Azam, one of the best white-ball batsmen in the world, is the key for Pakistan. He’s the one who usually bats through an innings, averaging nearly 50 in T20 Internationals, which is a frankly ridiculous number. Fakhar Zaman at the other end is a damaging striker, though he hasn’t been in great nick for a while.
We’ll get underway on time, with the groundstaff doing a lightning job.
Pakistan
Fakhar Zaman
Babar Azam *
Haris Sohail
Mohammad Rizwan +
Asif Ali
Iftikhar Ahmed
Imad Wasim
Wahab Riaz
Shadab Khan
Mohammad Amir
Mohammad Irfan
Australia
Aaron Finch *
David Warner
Steven Smith
Ben McDermott
Ashton Turner
Alex Carey +
Ashton Agar
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Starc
Kane Richardson
Adam Zampa
Aaron Finch calls correctly, and with rain around he opts to chase so that Australia will know exactly what the situation is if any overs are lost. Good call, because the rain starts coming down a few minutes after the toss. There will be a slight delay to the start. The rain doesn’t last long.
Hello, folks. It’s T20 time once again. Australia got rid of Sri Lanka in short order across three matches in the past week or so, but Pakistan might pose a sterner test. At least, they will if rain stays away at the SCG. No Glenn Maxwell for Australia, he’s taken a mental-health break from the game for a time. Ben McDermott is the replacement batsman for him in the top four. Pakistan are the number one T20 side in the world, and whitewashed Australia in the UAE across three games last year, but may have some issues adapting to Australian conditions, even if the Sydney pitch isn’t the fastest and bounciest going around.
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