Despite The Wet Conditions, Australia Outshines Pakistan By 29 Runs

The 36-year-old Glenn Maxwell player of the match at T20 series

Glenn Maxwell in action during Men’s T20 series between Australia and Pakistan on 14th November 2024 at The Gabba / Photo by Bradley Kanaris/ Getty Images.

By Mercy Kosgei

The start of the game was delayed by about three hours after Gabba experienced persistent rain that was accompanied by lightning, this led to shortening of the game to a seven over shoot out. Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and automatically stood a chance to bowl first against Jos Inglis, Australia under lights in damp and brooding conditions.

During the first innings Shaheen Shah Afridi started with full banger when he was hit for 16 runs, in his opening over setting the tone, while Haris Rauf’s disciplined first over had Maxwell struggling. The Australian team were very clear from onset after this because they were focused in hitting a boundary off every ball and on awareness that the wickets were not really that important.

Maxwell struggling at first over enabled him to build pace for proceeding overs. He tactfully used reverse slog using the bowler’s pace to get his shots far away. He nailed a reverse sweep off Shaheen Shah Afridi flat for 6. This called for Shaheen to get out of the over due to a cost of only couple of more runs. Maxwell was at his best and managed to smash 19 off his second over.

At the final over Maxwell was out of the game after the ball was caught by Abbas Afridi, however Tim David partnered with Marcus Stoinis in almost the same spirit and legacy set by Maxwell having Stoinis 20 off making Australia lead to 93. If it were not for Abbas Afridi’s effort at the middle that slowed the momentum Australia would have pushed to 100 runs mark.

On the other hand, Pakistan required somebody from their line up to score a 10 ball 30-35 runs. During the innings, Sahibzada Farhan managed to hit two boundaries from first two balls but later Spencer Johnson got him two balls. This was good play for the team as there were five wickets that fell in 12 balls for 8 runs.

Aga Salman tried to play a shot but it was unfortunately caught by keeper. Three overs into the innings and it seemed that Pakistan’s fate had already been decided. They managed to redeem themselves when Haseebullah Khan and Abbas scored 18 off the fifth over. Nathan Ellis scored 2-9-3 and this landed Pakistan at 64/9 in 7 overs.

In post-match interview Mohammed Rizwan said,” It was difficult to keep the things normal in a seven-over game. We’ve got to give credit to Maxy, his style really worked well.”

In a post-match interview Glenn Maxwell said,” Had a lot of fun out there we thought we had enough on board. There was a little bit of tackiness in wicket. The bowlers did a great job. There was a few of us who had packed our bags expecting the game to be called off so it a mad rush to get ready credit to the guys.”

The second T20 game will be played on Saturday in Sydney.