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Lahore. Pakistan made a spectacular comeback in the decisive ODI against Australia and won by 4 wickets late on Thursday night. In a low-scoring match, Pakistan achieved the target and won the three-match ODI series.

After successfully defending 231 runs in the second ODI, Australian captain Josh Inglis had decided to bat first in the decisive match. It was expected that the team would again score a challenging score, but the batting completely disintegrated and the entire team was reduced to only 157 runs.

Australia got off to a bad start when Shaheen Afridi sent Matthew Short to the pavilion in the opening over itself. After this, captain Josh English took over the innings and scored the maximum of 65 runs (71 balls). Apart from him, no other batsman could play a big innings.

Inglis formed partnerships with Marnus Labuschagne and later Alex Carey to take the team close to 100 runs, but the Australian batting collapsed as soon as they were out.

Australia’s score at one time was 119/3, but after that the team lost the last 7 wickets adding only 37 runs and were all out for 157 runs.

Shaheen Afridi took 3 wickets for Pakistan. The spinners also played a brilliant role. Abrar Ahmed took 2 wickets for only 19 runs in 10 overs, while Shadab Khan also took 2 wickets.

Pakistan had an aggressive start to chase the target. Maaz Sadaqat batted fast and maintained the run pace in the beginning, but Australia made the match interesting by taking consecutive wickets.

During this, Babar Azam batted very restrainedly and scored 40 runs in 84 balls and laid the foundation of the team’s victory. For Australia, Matthew Kuhneman bowled brilliantly and gave continuous blows. He put Pakistan under pressure by taking 3 wickets.

At one time Pakistan was struggling at 119/5, but Abdul Samad (18)* and Shadab Khan (29)* batted with patience and gave the team victory in the 42nd over.

Brief Score:
Australia: 157 all out (42 overs) — Josh Inglis 65; Shaheen Afridi 3/30, Abrar Ahmed 2/19, Shadab Khan 2/28
Pakistan: 161/6 (41.5 overs) — Babar Azam 40, Shadab Khan 29*; Matthew Kuhneman 3/38
Result: Pakistan won by 4 wickets.