Johnson's high five takes Australia to T20I series win

Spencer Johnson's maiden five-wicket haul for Australia has sealed the T20 series against Pakistan as the visitors fell 13 runs short in Sydney.

Australia's quicks were on song for the second match running as the hosts successfully defended their 9-147 after being challenged at the mid-point of the chase.

Given the responsibility with first-choice quicks Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood preparing for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Johnson (5-26) and Xavier Bartlett (1-18) showcased their skills with a strangling performance.

Nathan Ellis was tasked with defending 16 runs off the final over, and despite having an unusually expensive night, held his nerve with a couple of excellent yorkers to the in-form Muhammad Irfan Khan.

Haris Rauf was run out with three balls remaining to end the match , with captain Josh Inglis gleefully whipping off the bails to confirm his maiden series win as national skipper.

Player of the match Johnson's first ball of the innings swung viciously down the leg side for five wides, but that would be the only time the white Kookaburra would reach the rope in the first nine overs of the chase.

The tall left-armer made amends for his wicketless, 12-run opening over by dismissing Sahibzada Farhan in his second, hurrying up the Pakistan No.3 with a short ball.

Visiting captain Rizwan (16 off 26) struggled to find timing on the Sydney pitch, especially off Barlett who completely bamboozled the diminutive wicketkeeper on several occasions.

Johnson's third over, the 10th of the innings, was a turning point in the game.

First the tied-down Rizwan holed out to Tim David, who caught well running in from long on.

The next ball, Salman Ali Agha copped a beauty which he tried to defend, but only feathered through to Josh Inglis off a ball that left him ever-so-slightly.

Johnson was recalled to the attack by skipper Josh Inglis in 15th over with the Aussies desperately needing to break the 58-run stand between Usman Khan and Irfan (38no).

The South Australia delivered – beating Usman (52 off 38) for pace in similar fashion to the Farhan wicket, with the ball looping up to square leg where Bartlett took a simple catch.

Bartlett, who was operating from the northern Paddington End of the ground, bowled three overs off the top and conceded only seven runs after taking the wicket of Babar Azam first ball, caught at deep square leg.

Zampa, sporting a freshly-bleached crew cut that would have looked right at home in a 1990s music film clip, chiming in for two wickets late in his 200th match for Australia as the tail began swinging wildly.

A late blitz from Irfan had the largely-Pakistani 31,563-strong crowd roaring, but he had too much to do in the final over.

Earlier, Australia's first three overs played out exactly how the hosts would've hoped – Jake Fraser-McGurk and Matt Short went hell-for-leather from ball one once again and it came off, at least initially.

The opening over of the innings was electric – Fraser-McGurk finished the Shaheen Shah Afridi over with three fours and six.

With three overs done, Australia were 0-48 and eyeing off a total similar to India's 1-283 in Johannesburg yesterday.

But as it's been all series, it was the introduction of Rauf that changed the momentum.

The Pakistan spearhead struck twice in his first over, dismissing Fraser-McGurk who skied a short ball, and Josh Inglis who was squared up with Rauf's pace and perfect length.

What followed was a Pakistani strangulation led by Rauf and ably supported by newbies Abbas Afridi (3-17) and Sufiyan Muqeem (2-21). Between overs four and 15, the Aussies hit the boundary only three times.

Australia's plight would have been far worse had the tourists not put in their sloppiest fielding performance of their trip to date, putting down four chances and misfielding a couple more in the 20 overs.

Thankfully for Pakistan though, Rauf's hot form continued, with his four wickets here taking his combined series tally to 15 (10 in the ODIs, five in the T20s).

Aaron Hardie (28 off 23) added another handy lower-order cameo to his growing international resume, after impressing in the role in the ODIs and T20s against England in September.

Australia v Pakistan T20Is 2024

November 14: Australia won by 29 runs at the Gabba

November 16: SCG: 7.00pm AEDT

November 18: Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 7.00pm AEDT

All matches live and exclusive on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports

Australia T20 squad: Josh Inglis (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Spencer Johnson, Glenn Maxwell, Josh Philippe, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

Pakistan T20 squad: Muhammad Rizwan (c), Abbas Afridi, Agha Salman, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Irfan Khan, Jahandad Khan, Naseem Shah, Omair Yousuf, Sahibzada Farhan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Usman Khan.