Spencer Johnson produced the greatest-ever figures by an Australian fast bowler in a men’s Twenty20 international to bowl his side to a 13-run win over Pakistan in Sydney.
With Australia defending 147 for nine at the SCG on Saturday night, Johnson took five for 26 with the ball to have Pakistan all out for 134 and help the hosts to an unassailable 2-0 series lead.
Johnson’s haul made him only the sixth bowler in history to take five wickets in a match for Australia in T20s, and usurped James Faulkner’s five for 27 from 2016 as the best by a quick.
Making the feat even more remarkable was that Johnson’s first over went wicketless and for 12 runs, as he sprayed a ball to first slip and gave away five wides to the fine-leg boundary. However, from there the left-armer delivered with his first ever white-ball five-wicket haul at domestic or international level.
Johnson removed captain Muhammad Rizwan for 16 and Salman Agha for a one-ball duck with successive balls to leave Pakistan reeling at 44 for four, before Usman Khan (52) and Irfan Khan (37) launched a comeback. The pair put on 58 for the fifth wicket in quick time, with Usman hitting Adam Zampa inside-out over cover for six and four other boundaries.
Then it was up to Johnson to again deliver, getting Usman caught on the pull shot for 52 before also getting Abbas Afridi at cover in the same over. Zampa then dismissed both Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah for ducks on his way to figures of two for 19 as the tourists teetered on the brink.
Pakistan were still in the game with 24 needed from the final two overs and 16 needed off the last six balls. However, Haris Rauf was run out for two while attempting to come back for a second run, with the tourists still requiring 15 from four balls.
Earlier, Australia had squandered a red-hot start from Matthew Short, who struck 32 from 17 balls, and Jake Fraser-McGurk who had contributed 20 from nine. The pair blasted 47 runs off the first 15 deliveries but the hosts only added another 100 runs from the next 105 balls of the innings.
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Australia hit as many boundaries in that first 2.3 overs as they did the rest of the innings, with the pair both pulling the ball over the legside rope. The game changed when Fraser-McGurk was caught trying to jump and uppercut Rauf, and Josh Inglis was caught behind for a duck two balls later.
From there wickets fell regularly as Pakistan took the pace off the ball, and Rauf finished with figures of four for 22 to take his tally of wickets for the tour to 15. Aaron Hardie hit 28 runs off 23 balls before being caught behind off Abbas Afridi’s bowling.
While Afridi’s heroics were enough to deliver Pakistan to a 2-1 ODI series win, they will depart Australia after Monday’s third T20 in Hobart without series success in the shortest format.
