LAHORE: An impressive all-round performance by Saim Ayub led Pakistan to a comfortable 22-run victory against Australia in the first Twenty20 International here at a jam-packed Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday.

The left-handed opener first smashed 40 off 22 balls to enable Pakistan to post a solid 168-8 and then took two important wickets, including that of belligerent opener Travis Head, inside powerplay to keep the visitors at bay.

The win gave the hosts a 1-0 lead in the three-match series ahead of the all-important ICC T20 World Cup starting on Feb 7.

Saim said the hosts had planned to dominate despite tough batting conditions.

“I think the conditions were a bit challenging, but our plan was to dominate with the new ball as much as possible,” he said after the match.

“The goal was to dominate [in powerplay] sensibly by calculating the innings, watching the ball, and enjoying the process.”

Speaking about Pakistan’s bowling plan, he said, “We knew that if we hit a good length consistently, it wouldn’t be easy for the batters to score.”

Head acted as the stand-in skipper as Australia rested their regular captain Mitchell Marsh who joined the team late after completing his Big Bash League commitment back home.

Pacers Mahli Beardman and Jack Edwards and off-spinner Matthew Renshaw made T20 International debut for Australia.

The tourists never got going in their chase after suffering a couple of early blows as Saim mesmerised their openers.

Matthew Short (five) was cleaned up by the off-spinner in the second over when the right hander unsuccessfully attempted a slog stroke only to see the ball clip top of middle and off stump.

Southpaw Head looked threatening in his 13-ball 23 laced with two fours and as many sixes before skying a fuller length ball from Saim in the fourth over as Babar Azam coming in from long-off took a good catch. Australia were now 28-2.

Head lamented his dismissal.

“It was disappointing, but that’s how batting goes sometimes,” he said.

Speaking on the World Cup preparations, he said, “We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out. We have two more opportunities before we head to Sri Lanka, and we want to continue playing as well as we can.”

They were 57-2 at the end of powerplay as Cameron Green (36 off 31 balls) and Renshaw (15 off 11) tried to resurrect the innings adding 40 runs off 23 balls before the tourists suffered a two-fold setback in the eighth over bowled by spinner Abrar Ahmed.

First Renshaw was run out after a mid-pitch miscommunication with his partner and then Cooper Connolly (zero) was bowled on a quicker delivery as Australia descended to 68-4.

There was yet another run-out in the 11th over — this time a bit of bad luck — as the ball ricocheted off spinner Mohammad Nawaz’s fingers and hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end to find Mitchell Owen (eight) out of the crease. It took two more overs before the scoreline from 80-5 became 96-6 when Babar just inside the rope at long-off took Green’s well-judged catch off Nawaz. The batter struck three fours and a six.

Australia touched the 100 mark in the 14th over as their target was getting more and more difficult. Edwards (five) and Josh Philippe (12) were dismissed by Shadab Khan and Abrar Ahmed, respectively as their team crumbled further to 112-8 in the 16th over.

No.10 player Xavier Bartlett struck some big shots in his 25-ball 34 not out laced with three fours and a brace of sixes but it was too little too late as his team ended at 146-8 off the stipulated overs.

Saim, who earned the player-of-the-match award, conceded 29 runs for his two wickets in three overs while Abrar had highly-impressive figures of 2-10. Nawaz and Shadab got one apiece while pacers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Salman Mirza remained wicketless.

Earlier after electing to bat first on a bright sunny day, Pakistan lost their opener Sahibzada Farhan (nought) on the very first ball of the match as pacer Bartlett took a catch off his own bowling.

Skipper Salman Ali Agha (39 off 27) joined Saim as they steered Pakistan to 56-1 in powerplay.

Speaking after the match, Salman said he will be batting number three in the coming games as well.

“Yes, I’ll be batting at number three. We expect to face a lot of spin, and I believe I can dominate spin during powerplay. That’s why I moved up, and that is where I’ll stay,” the captain said.

They advanced to 74-1 in 7.3 overs before an attacking Saim skied a miscued shot off leg-spinner Adam Zampa as a running Edwards took the catch. The batter cracked three fours and a couple of sixes. In his next over, Zampa sent Salman back to the pavilion as the batter while trying to play a lofted stroke was caught by Bartlett at long-on as the hosts were now 86-3. The Pakistan skipper smashed four sixes and a four.

The hosts reached 100 in 10.5 overs and looked for a gigantic total but a flurry of wickets checked their progress.

Babar Azam struggled to reach 24 off 20 before he was trapped by Zampa in the 14th over as Pakistan slipped to 123-4 while Fakhar Zaman consumed 16 balls to make 10 before the left-hander was caught by Green at long-on off Bartlett to leave his team at 140-5 in the 16th over.

Wicket-keeper Usman Khan (18 off 14) was sent back by Zampa in the 18th over while Nawaz struck 15 not out off 14.

Shadab and Shaheen were dismissed in the final over delivered by Beardman.

Zampa took 4-24 while Beardman and Bartlett picked up a couple of wickets each for 33 and 26 runs, respectively.

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN:
Sahibzada Farhan c&b Bartlett 0
Saim Ayub c Edwards b Zampa 40
Salman Ali Agha c Bartlett b Zampa 39
Babar Azam lbw b Zampa 24
Fakhar Zaman c Green b Bartlett 10
Usman Khan c Green b Zampa 18
Mohammad Nawaz not out 15
Shadab Khan c Green b Beardman 1
Shaheen Afridi c Owen b Beardman 0
Salman Mirza not out 4

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-2, NB-1, W-12) 17
TOTAL (for eight wickets, 20 overs) 168
DID NOT BAT: Abrar Ahmed
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 (Sahibzada), 2-74 (Saim), 3-86 (Salman), 4-123 (Babar), 5-140 (Fakhar), 6-149 (Usman), 7-160 (Shadab), 8-160 (Shaheen)
BOWLING: Bartlett 4-0-26-2 (1w), Connolly 3-0-22-0 (1w), Short 2-0-23-0 (2w), Edwards 2-0-25-0, Beardman 4-0-33-2 (1w, 1nb), Zampa 4-0-24-4 (1w), Green 1-0-11-0 (1w)

AUSTRALIA:
M. Short b Saim 5
T. Head c Babar b Saim 23
C. Green c Babar b Nawaz 36
M. Renshaw run out 15
C. Connolly b Abrar 0
M. Owen run out 8
J. Philippe c Saim b Abrar 12
J. Edwards c Babar b Shadab 5
X. Bartlett not out 34
A. Zampa not out 5

EXTRAS (B-1, W-2) 3
TOTAL (for eight wickets, 20 overs) 146
DID NOT BAT: M. Beardman
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-21 (Short), 2-28 (Head), 3-68 (Renshaw), 4-68 (Connolly), 5-80 (Owen), 6-96 (Green), 7-105 (Edwards), 8-112 (Philippe)
BOWLING: Shaheen 3-0-29-0, Saim 3-0-29-2, Salman Mirza 3-0-27-0 (1w), Shadab 3-0-25-1 (1w), Abrar 4-0-10-2, Nawaz 4-0-25-1

RESULT: Pakistan won by 22 runs.
PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Saim Ayub

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2026