Washout robs Australia after Jonassen's 4 for 17 strangles Pakistan
Australia 0 for 28 (Healy 12*, Mooney 11*) vs Pakistan 94 for 8 (Bismah 32*, Jonassen 4-17) - No result
Rain has left Australia four balls short of a resounding victory over Pakistan in their final T20I before the Commonwealth Games after Jess Jonassen bagged 4 for 17 in Bready.
Pakistan limped to 94 for 8 from their 20 overs with captain Bismah Maroof holding the innings together with 32 not out. Australia's openers Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy cruised to 28 without loss but rain fell with just four balls left in the 5th over and never relented, leaving the game four balls short of a minimum five overs for each side. Had the four balls been bowled Australia would have won easily under the Duckworth-Lewis method.
The match was initially delayed due to wet weather. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat and made a decent start reaching 21 without loss in the 5th over before Ash Gardner struck. Iram Javed was cleaned bowled as she tried to give room to cut from off stump. It sparked a collapse with Pakistan losing 4 for 21 in 30 balls.
Omaima Sohail holed out off the last ball of the powerplay, slog sweeping Jonassen straight to deep midwicket. Nicola Carey chimed in with two wickets as Pakistan slumped to 42 for 4 before Bismah and Aliya Riaz steadied briefly with a near run-a-ball 30-run stand.
But a horror mix-up ended the partnership with 27 balls left in the innings. Bismah worked a ball through square leg and the pair pushed for two only to see Megan Schutt pounce running in from the deep. But Schutt over-ran the ball which caused the batters to start running for a second only to realise it was too tight. Schutt raced back, gathered and fired leaving Aliya Riaz stranded.
Jonassen picked up three wickets in the final over and conceded just three singles. Jonassen was delighted to pick up four wickets in her second game back after missing the first two matches due to Covid.
"I was a bit disappointed in the first game," Jonassen said. "Even though I took a couple of wickets I felt like I bowled pretty ordinary. I felt a little bit rusty and struggled to find some rhythm. But today was a different story. I definitely felt like I was back to bowling really good areas and executing the plans that I wanted to and yeah, to come away with a few wickets at the end of that it's obviously really nice. It's good for the confidence leading into the Comm Games."
Pakistan's bowling innings started disastrously with Mooney caught at short fine off a no-ball from Diana Baig. Mooney and Alyssa Healy barely took a risk from there striking just two boundaries before the rain arrived to end proceedings and cost Australia's some valuable time in the middle in their last match before the Commonwealth Games.
"It was obviously disappointing not to get a result today with the rain," Jonassen said. "I think as a bowling group, we're pretty pleased with the effort we put in from the previous games, we were wanting to tighten up our areas and own our lengths. And I thought we did that today. It was a really good last hit out. Just a shame that the batters couldn't get their time out in the middle today."