Australia 157 (Inglis 65, Afridi 3-30, Abrar 2-19) vs Pakistan

The start of the match had to be delayed by 15 minutes because of a brief downpour. Australia had changed their opening pair in a hope to deny Pakistan any early inroads by swapping Inglis with Alex Carey, but the change did not reap the desired result as Afridi had Matt Short caught on mid-on on the second ball of the innings. Afridi pitched the ball up outside off, but it seemed to have stuck in the pitch as he failed to make a clean connection.

Inglis, however, batted with fluency and smashed Afridi for boundaries at the start of the innings. He welcomed Arafat Minhas with a crunching drive for four and a monstrous inside-out six over covers. In an innings, in which he scored heavily on the offside, Inglis unfurled reverse sweeps against the spin. He made only 13 out of 65 runs on the leg.

Australia started sedately and were content to be scoring at around four an over after Inglis decided to bat. It was just a couple of nights ago that they realised the importance of digging deep as the wild slogs and heaves across the line would not garner the desired results on these slow and low pitches of Lahore.

Marnus Labuschagne’s struggles in ODIs and on this tour continued as a bizarre mix-up in the 12th over curtailed his stay at the wicket. He was supporting Inglis nicely by milking the spinners around the dial and seemed to have settled when Inglis did not return his call for the second run and he had to scramble back from the middle of the wicket only to fall short of a Minhas’ direct hit from the non-striker’s end.

Carey – who like Labuschagne scored 19 – provided a supporting hand to Inglis in a 52-run partnership before a scorching delivery that nipped into him after pitching on length outside off struck the top of his middle stump. It sparked a collapse and soon Afridi had Inglis and Cameron Green caught across three balls at the start of his second spell.

Salman Ali Agha then took a sharp catch at slip as Abrar Ahmed lured Matt Renshaw – Australia’s best batter on the tour – in a drive. He bowled Cooper Connolly, playing his first match of the series, in his next over as Australia slipped from 199 for three to 131 for seven.

Shadab Khan’s wicketless patch finally ended after five matches when Ghazi Ghori took a spectacular catch as the ball looped off Oliver Peake’s foot after taking an inside edge of his bat. It was only after the second ODI that Mike Hesson, the Pakistan head coach, had relegated Shadab to fifth bowler in this line-up, but the leg-spinner bowled with good rhythm, bringing the stumps into play more often by tossing the ball on length regularly.

He had Adam Zampa bowled off a ball that stayed low in the 42nd over. The run out of Nathan Ellis brought an end to the innings on the last ball of the over.