Offspinner Glenn Maxwell polished off Pakistan’s top order with the new ball and opening batsman David Warner anchored the run chase with an unbeaten 53 as Australia comfortably won the one-off Twenty20 match by six wickets on Sunday. Maxwell finished with 3-13 after removing opening batsman Awais Zia for 3 while Umar Amin and Sohaib Maqsood fell without scoring.

Newcomer Saad Nasim hit 25 to stabilize the innings but Pakistan finished on an uncompetitive 96-9 after Shahid Afridi won the toss in his comeback match as captain and opted to bat first. Australia wobbled at first, reduced to 56-4, before Warner cut loose and Australia reached 98-4 with six overs to spare.

Brief scores: Pakistan 96/9 in 20 overs (Saad Nasim 25; Glenn Maxwell 3/13, Cameron Boyce 2/10) lost to Australia 97/4 in 14 overs (David Warner 53*; Raza Hasan 2/17) by six wickets.

Focus on spin for ODIs

Pakistan and Australia will focus on spin when they start a three-match ODI series in Sharjah on Tuesday, despite the absence of top bowler Saeed Ajmal, who is suspended over his suspect bowling action. Pakistan have been hard pressed to compensate for Ajmal, who has single-handedly won them matches in all three formats of the game in the last five years.

He was reported for a suspect bowling action on Pakistan’s August tour of Sri Lanka and was subsequently banned from international cricket after a bio-mechanic analysis found his action illegal. Skipper Misbah-ul Haq stressed Pakistan must move on. “Pakistan will also miss allrounder Mohammad Hafeez, who injured his hand on Saturday and will miss the limited over series. But Misbah conceded that Pakistan will have to put runs on the board after being restricted to 96-9 in the Twenty20 match, with Australian spinners Glenn Maxwell (3-13) and Cameron Boyce (2-10) causing trouble.

Pakistan’s batting will again be tested after their miserable show on the Sri Lankan tour where they lost the one-day series 2-1 and the Tests 2-0.

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