Pakistan’s high-tempo flight reaches the zenith

His figures tarnished, Adam Zampa was angry with himself for overpitching the final ball of an otherwise neat spell that backed up a four-wicket haul in the series opener. He conceded the least runs among the Australian bowlers in what was a do-or-die contest, with the rest yielding to the wrists of Salman Ali Agha and the horizontal manoeuvres of Usman Khan.

The belligerent show by Pakistan at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore is the high point of their endeavour to play the slam-bang format the way top teams do. Recently, across the border, Ishan Kishan hit Matt Henry for consecutive sixes in the immediate aftermath of opener Sanju Samson’s dismissal. Neither was there any need for sighters, nor was he discouraged by the premature fall of his comrade. Pakistan have been taking notes from their neighbours, it seems, for the wicket of Sahibzada Farhan upfront was followed by aggression from Agha. An advance down the pitch to chip his first delivery over mid-off reinforced a new era for the mercurial Asian side that was beset by the strike-rates of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.

It wasn’t a rush of blood or a lone counterpunch, but the omen making Pakistan’s intentions clear, that gone are the days of stabilization once their boat is rocked early. From January 2023 to December 2024, Pakistan made 180 nine times in 38 T20Is. They crossed the mark on seven occasions in 16 innings till September 2025. Farhan announced his arrival on the scene with 107 sixes last year, while Saim Ayub has started repaying the faith of the Mike Hesson-led management that believes in his stratospheric ceiling. Having scored 40 in the previous game thanks to his no-look laps, he got Pakistan off to a flier again, sowing the seeds of Xavier Bartlett’s tough outing and welcoming Cooper Connolly into the attack with an inside out cover drive.

Agha was jostling for attention in this exchange upfront, taking Matthew Kuhnemann for 18 in an over with a couple of sweetly-timed lofts. Sean Abott made matters worse with a full toss to begin his quota, and things just went downhill from thereon as the Pakistan captain enjoyed his drift towards the leg-stump. His flick upon shimmying was an exhibition of the wristy strokeplay that the subcontinent prides itself on, and the swept six off Connolly brought up the fifty partnership inside the PowerPlay. That dexterity was also on display when Agha raised his own half-century too, nurdling the left-arm orthodox to long-on for a single against the turn. Even though Ayub perished to an obvious review and Azam remained Zampa’s bunny, the forearm strength and manipulation skills of Pakistan’s new one-drop batter had Pakistan steady on 117/3 after a dozen overs, the march past hundred coming through three fours off Bartlett.

With the T20 World Cup being jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka where the ball grips and turns, Agha is settling nicely into his enforcer role at number three with 253 runs in seven innings at a strike-rate of 172. “We expect to face a lot of spin, and I believe I can dominate spin during the Powerplay. That’s why I moved up, and that is where I’ll stay,’’ he said.

There were seven overs left in the tank as Agha departed, missing a surefire hundred, but Pakistan managed to keep their foot on the gas pedal, in keeping with their current template. Usman Khan moved around in the crease to engineer the scope to flex his muscles where there was none. For example, when Mitchell Marsh gambled with the negative match-up of part-time offie Matthew Short versus two right-handers, the dispatch of the tramline kisser over long-on was only possible due to his shuffle across the sticks. Inversely, he created room off Kuhnemann, going down on one knee to extend his arms and fetch a flat six over covers.

‘’We know he’s a very good player of spin bowling. He’s probably the best player in our team right now against spin. We knew his ability, and I knew that this kind of an inning will come sooner or later. I’m very happy for him. Hope he can continue like that in coming days as well,’’ Agha remarked.

It helped Pakistan’s cause that the ball was turning 0.6 degrees less than it did the other night; then Usman had proved a casualty to spin as the hosts collapsed from 123/3 to 160/8. Australia were also not doing themselves any favours either, with Abott serving a luscious half-volley outside off despite having men inside the ring and Bartlett embarking on a slot-ball gifting spree that Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz revelled in. 59 runs off the last 30 balls at the cost of just one wicket made amends for the 26 balls that reaped just 34 runs before the home stretch.

By the end of the fifth over, Australia had been reduced to an alarming 29/3, with the game as good as gone courtesy of the variety of spin in Pakistan’s ranks. ‘’They put us under great pressure in the Powerplay. We’ve got experienced guys who know that partnerships are really important in run-chases like that. We weren’t able to do that today,’’ Marsh reflected. ‘’Pakistan certainly outplayed us. As when you lose, there’s always great lessons that you can take out of it. And hopefully we can implement them tomorrow and moving forward,’’ he added as Pakistan registered their first T20I series win against Australia since 2018 a day after they defeated the Kangaroos in the shortest format for the first time in seven years.

An embarrassing 90-run defeat and a T20I series capitulation rings the alarm bells for the visitors as the World Cup approaches near. It is Australia’s biggest T20I loss since 2005, and second worst overall. On the contrary, Pakistan are gathering steam at an opportune juncture, their batters now kicking up the tempo to meet the modern demands and the five-pronged spin battery primed to excel on the slow decks that lie in wait.