PAK v AUS | One-off T20I | Cameos from McDermott, Head; anchoring knock from Finch guide Australia home

Ice-cool Ben McDermott ensured that he stayed till the end to guide his side to a three-wicket win in the One-off T20I as curtains fell on Australia's historic tour of Pakistan on Tuesday (April 5) night.

Chasing 163 runs, the first task for Australia and especially an out-of-form Aaron Finch was to see off the new-ball threat, which Shaheen Afridi brings to the table.

And they did it in some style as Travis Head smashed the left-arm seamer for a couple of fours (plus a boundary thanks to leg-byes) to rack up 14 in the first over. With Finch being cautious, Head wielded his willow to play some stunning shots during his 14-ball 26 before eventually perishing to Haris Rauf.

Josh Inglis came out firing all cylinders, and with Finch gradually getting back into his touch, the duo hammered four fours in the next three overs to ensure that Australia racked up 63 runs before the fielding restrictions came into play.

The challenge for Australia was always going to be the middle overs against Usman Qadir's leg-spin and Mohammad Waseem Jr's skiddy pace.

And that's precisely proved to be the case as Qadir dismissed both Inglis and Marnus Labuschagne in successive overs to leave Australia in a bit of bother at 95/3 in the 11th over.

However, Qadir and Wasim seemed to have undone all the good work he had done until he dished out proper cannon and fodder stuff to Marcus Stoinis, who cashed on it big time by smashing as many as five fours off his first seven deliveries.

However, Waseem came back brilliantly as he knocked over Marcus Stoinis with a pacy delivery, which skidded a bit and moved enough to beat the Australian's defence.

In his next over, he did an encore against Cameron Green, reducing Australia to 130/5 after 14. Amid the carnage, skipper Finch completed a much-needed half-century on the 37th delivery he faced. 

With the 16th and 17th over from Waseem and Shaheen yielding just 10 runs, Australia needed a big push, and that's exactly what they got from Ben McDermott, who effectively killed the chase by smashing Haris for a couple of fours on the leg-side at the start of the 18th over.

With just 5 required off the last 12 balls, Finch went for the glory shot against Shaheen to finish things off in style but holed out to Asif Ali at deep mid-wicket.

Afridi infused some excitement in the game as he knocked over Sean Abbott with a corker of a delivery. Still, Haris ensured that Australia won it with five balls to spare as he dished out a poor leg-side delivery to McDermott, who took a full toll of it.

Nathan Ellis 4/28 kept Pakistan to 162/6 despite Babar Azam's 66 (46)

Earlier, Australia won the toss, and as is always the case in T20 cricket, especially in the subcontinent, skipper Aaron Finch had no hesitation in opting to field first.

As usual, the ever-so consistent Pakistan opening duo of skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan racked up yet another 50-plus stand. Babar was the spearhead among the duo as he scored 38 off 25 deliveries in the first six overs, including three consecutive boundaries off Nathan Ellis in the third.

Pakistan finished the powerplay at 0-56 - their highest score against Australia during this phase - before Green's double blow in the 8th over pegged them back.

The lanky all-rounder knocked over Rizwan with a slower delivery, and yet another slower ball spelt the demise of Fakhar Zaman, who in an attempt to slog the seam-bowling all-rounder out of the ground, holed out to Finch at mid-on.

Azam marched on to score another T20I fifty with a boundary off the 33rd delivery he faced. The Pakistan skipper added 26 runs in four overs with Iftikhar Ahmed (13 off 13) and Khushdil Shah (24 off 21). Still, it was pretty evident that Pakistan struggled to break free during the middle-overs, especially against Zampa and Green.

However, Babar eventually fell to Zampa for a 46-ball 66 in the 16th over, paving the way for a collapse that saw Pakistan score just 44 runs at the loss of 4 wickets in the last 4.4 overs post his dismissal.

22 out of those 44 runs came in the final over bowled by Ben Dwarshuis, thanks mainly to Usman Qadir, who hammered a 6-ball 18.

Ellis was the prime wrecker-in-chief, finishing with figures of 4/28 in four as Pakistan ended at 162/8, which proved to be inadequate in the end.

With their victory in the one-off T20I, Australia finished their historic tour of Pakistan with an overall lead of 3-2.

They won the Test series 1-0 and lost the ODIs 1-2.

Brief Scores:

Pakistan- 162/8 (20) 

Babar Azam 66 (46), Usman Qadir 18*(6); 

Nathan Ellis 4/28 (4), Cameron Green 2/16 (3)

Australia 163/7 (19.1)

Aaron Finch 55 (45), Marcus Stoinis 23 (9), Ben McDermott 22* (19); Mohammad Waseem 2/30 (4), Shaheen Afridi 2/21 (4)

Australia won by three wickets.