Salman Agha, spinners help Pakistan to series-clinching win over Australia

Led by half-centuries from Salman Agha and Usman Khan, backed up by three-wickets apiece by Abrar Ahmed and Shadab Khan, Pakistan registered a thumping 90-run win over Australia to secure a series-clinching 2-0 lead, their third successive series win at home. It was also their first T20I bilateral series win over Australia. Pakistan elected to bat, losing Sahibzada Farhan in the second over, and Saim Ayub blazed away to a quick start. However, Pakistan were pegged back early. His attempt to reverse sweep backfired and he was caught behind. Nonetheless, Pakistan didn't lose the momentum provided by Saim. Agha got going early as well, pumping Matt Kuhnemann for a boundary down the ground off the first ball. Pakistan got off to a flying start in the powerplay two overs later when he carted the spinner for a six and two more boundaries. Despite the fact that Ayub was run out leg before leg by Cooper Connolly off the penultimate ball of the phase, Pakistan scored 72 runs in that phase. Babar Azam was dismissed for the fifth time by Adam Zampa, this time by trapping him leg before for 2. Although Pakistan was able to regain some momentum thanks to the double dent, Agha went on a rampage again shortly after reaching his half-century. He crushed three boundaries off Xavier Bartlett in the 11th over before losing to Sean Abbott on 76 two overs later. Pakistan were only able to score 129 runs for four at the end of the 14th over. Even as Australia managed to largely keep the boundary-scoring in check, Usman and Shadab Khan managed to get at least one hit past the boundary rope every over, the most expensive of those being Matthew Short's 16th over in which he was clubbed for two sixes. Australia never had a chance to relax as a result. Pakistan's spinners were relentless. Mitch Marsh and Saim Ayub, the openers, were run out off consecutive deliveries, and Cameron Green tried to fight back from one end with a steady stream of wickets. Abrar snagged Josh Inglis in the leg before killing him, and Matt Renshaw lost the same battle to Mohammad Nawaz. Shadab eliminated Connolly, and Tariq stopped Green's counterattack in the eleventh over. Toward the end, Matthew Short fought a little, but no one supported him. Barring the last over of the powerplay, when Green took the attack to Saim, there was no point in the chase where Australia looked the part. They were eventually bundled out for 108 in the 16th over. The Australians lost all ten of their wickets to the tweakers as they choked against spin in yet another match. In this series, they have lost 18 wickets, 16 of which were taken by spin and two by being run out.