Pakistan vs Australia 1st T20 highlights: PAK beat AUS by 22 runs and take 1-0 lead in Lahore

Well, there it is, Pakistan has won the first T20I in Lahore here. Abrar Ahmed has been superb through the middle overs with his two wickets, but the turning points in this innings have been two runouts of Cameron Green and Matt Renshaw. However, the Player of the Match performance has come from Saim Ayub, who did a brilliant job with the bat early on and then came back to pick up two wickets later in their bowling innings. That's it from us for today, folks, we will be right back for the second T20I on Saturday.

Phillipe is the last man to fall. Abrar bowled a flighted delivery, which the batter hit on the leg side towards the square-leg region, and Ayub, on the boundary, completed the catch. That was the last recognised batter for Australia in this line-up, and it does seem like Pakistan is going to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Two turning points in this game have come with two runouts. First, it was Renshaw, and then Owen was a bit unfortunate. He was out of his crease, and Green hit one straight back to the bowler, and it took the fingertips of Nawaz and hit the stumps. The onus is now on Green, who is well set to stay till the end and take Australia closer to the target.

Australia has lost two quick wickets here since our last update. First, it was Renshaw who tried to take a single, which his partner Green seemed not to be interested in whatsoever, and then young Connolly came into the middle and could not read the mystery of Abrar and lost his stumps. Australia are in trouble here.

Saim Ayub has picked up the first wicket, it was a regular off-spinner which Matthew Short tried to heave on the leg-side and lost his stumps. As we update, Ayub has picked up his second wicket of the evening, and it is the dangerous man Travis Head who got undone by Ayub's delivery as he hit it straight to long-on fielder Babar Azam.

Adam Zampa has been the star in the first innings for Australia, and now they will need a good powerplay from Travis Head and Matt Short. It is not a massive score that they are chasing, and the wicket is expected to get better under lights. It is going to be a good chase do stay with us.

What a spell Zampa has had today in his final over, he has picked up another wicket of Usman Khan. The batter tried to hit across the line yet again and ended up giving a simple catch to the fielder on the long-on boundary. This has been a problem in this Pakistan side, where they keep losing wickets in clusters. This is something which was quite evident in Asia Cup too.

Babar Azam attempted a reverse-sweep and missed the ball as the ball hit his pads. He was not out while Adam Zampa urged to go for the review, and there were three reds on the ball-tracking. One of the errors batting teams make against Zampa is to play the cross-batted shots, and he tends to bowl quicker and flatter as we go deeper into the innings.

Adam Zampa gets his second wicket of the afternoon. It was a tossed-up delivery, yet again, which Agha danced down the track and tried to hit across the line, and ended up getting the leading edge, which carried to the long-on fielder. Zampa has a pretty good record against Pakistan and he is having a good day again here today.

That is superb batting from both Saim Ayub and Salman Agha in the power play. They have gone after the bowling. Ayub has been quite brutal on the Aussie bowlers. Salman Agha, too, since walking into the middle right from ball one has looked to stamp his authority and has managed to do it successfully.

Farhan will be kicking himself. That is a pretty soft dimissal it was a pitched-up delivery, which Farhan drove and ended up giving the return catch to Bartlett. The wicket is pretty flat, and Farhan had an opportunity to get some runs, but he will feel he has missed out on a pretty good opportunity to score runs here.

Travis Head(c), Matthew Short, Cameron Green, Matt Renshaw, Cooper Connolly, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe(w), Jack Edwards, Xavier Bartlett, Adam Zampa, Mahli Beardman

Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first

“If Virat Kohli had wanted to take this single like Babar Azam, Steve Smith ka baap bhi single leta!” Basit said. “You have brought your own value down with your game. Pakistan’s name is not sullied by this. People who say that are fools (“Bewakoof”). Babar went to play Big Bash because he was invited there, but the Pakistan cricket board didn’t send him,” Basit Ali had said on the YouTube channel ‘Game Plan’.

Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Ali Agha (c), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed

Australia Squad: Mitchell Marsh(c), Travis Head, Matthew Short, Josh Inglis(w), Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Owen, Ben Dwarshuis, Xavier Bartlett, Adam Zampa, Sean Abbott, Mahli Beardman, Matt Renshaw, Cameron Green, Matthew Kuhnemann, Josh Philippe, Jack Edwards, Cooper Connolly

Pakistan Squad: Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Babar Azam, Salman Agha(c), Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan(w), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Shaheen Afridi, Salman Mirza, Abrar Ahmed, Usman Tariq, Khawaja Nafay, Naseem Shah