At the start of the 45th over, Pakistan needed 42 runs from 36 balls with four wickets remaining. Shadab Khan was on 68. The chase that had looked dead at 78 for 6 — three quick wickets, the crowd silent, the match apparently over — had somehow come alive again. 42 off 36 is not easy. But with Shadab in this kind of form, it was not impossible.
Then Nathan Ellis bowled the 45th over.
Two deliveries. Two wickets. Mohammad Nawaz caught at long-off going for the six that would have brought the equation into single-digit territory. Abrar Ahmed bowled through the gate first ball — a full, straight delivery that Abrar played around, the stumps disturbed, the match effectively decided. Two balls. Two wickets. And Shadab Khan — who had batted for 104 balls and made 71 runs in a cause that looked lost from the moment Pakistan's top order collapsed — was left stranded at the non-striker's end, watching the innings he had constructed so carefully unravel in the space of two deliveries.
Australia won by 41 runs. AUS 231/9. PAK 190 all out in 44 overs. The series is level at 1-1. And on Thursday at Gaddafi Stadium — the same ground where this match was played — everything is decided.
Australia's Innings — How They Built Something From Nothing
Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl first on a surface that, unlike the flat Rawalpindi pitch of the first ODI, had something in it for the seamers. Shaheen Afridi's decision to field was the right one — and for the first eight overs, it looked like Pakistan were going to bowl Australia out for something well below 200.
Shaheen Afridi was the star with the ball, taking three wickets in his first spell that left Australia reeling at 51 for 2 at the end of the powerplay — Matthew Short and Alex Carey both back in the pavilion, both undone by Shaheen's ability to swing the ball late at pace. Arafat Minhas, the man who had taken five wickets on debut in Rawalpindi, came on in the eighth over and immediately found the conditions to his liking — tighter, more disciplined than his debut, three overs for 14 runs and the wicket of Mitchell Marsh who edged to Rizwan behind the stumps.
At 76 for 3 in the 18th over, with Josh Inglis and Cameron Green at the crease, Australia were in trouble. The pitch was doing enough. Pakistan's bowlers were disciplined. And then Inglis and Green decided to take the match away from Pakistan in the manner that IPL-hardened batters sometimes do — not through caution, but through calculated aggression that targeted the specific bowlers who were most likely to offer them something.
Josh Inglis made fifty off 67 balls — measured, intelligent, the kind of innings that accumulates quietly and then suddenly you look at the scoreboard and he has 50 and the required rate has dropped below 6. Cameron Green was less patient — 61 off 52 balls, hitting through the line with the kind of power that makes him one of the most dangerous middle-order batters in Australian cricket. Together, they added 102 for the fourth wicket and took Australia from 76 for 3 to 178 for 4.
The final contribution came from an unlikely source. Oliver Peake — the young batter who has been one of the stories of this Australian tour — came in at number eight and hit three sixes in the final five overs that took Australia from 198 for 7 to a final total of 231 for 9. It was not a dominating first innings performance. But on a pitch that was doing something, 231 was always going to be competitive — especially with Nathan Ellis in the bowling attack.
Pakistan's Collapse — And The Top Order That Let Everyone Down
The chase started badly. Within two overs, it had become a crisis.
Babar Azam — who had anchored Pakistan's successful chase in Rawalpindi with a composed 69 — was out for 8 in the third over, deceived by an off-cutter from Nathan Ellis that held its line as Babar drove across it. The ball found the inside edge and cannoned into the stumps. Babar stood for a moment, staring at the pitch, before walking off — the kind of dismissal that a batter hates precisely because it offers no argument. It was a good ball. He misjudged it. End of analysis.
Sahibzada Farhan followed in the very next over — playing a loose drive at a delivery outside off stump from Cameron Green, finding the edge, Inglis taking the catch behind the stumps. Two wickets in two overs. Pakistan 14 for 2. The required rate already above 5.5 on a pitch that was not going to make batting easy.
What happened next was the passage of play that decided this ODI series match. In the space of 28 deliveries — from the 4th over to the 11th — Pakistan lost four more wickets. Agha Salman played on to Ellis. Mohammad Rizwan, promoted up the order to try to stabilise the innings, was caught at slip off Tanveer Sangha's googly for 12. Ghazi Ghori — the batter who had scored a composed 65 in Rawalpindi — was bowled by a delivery from Green that came back sharply off the pitch and found the gap between bat and pad. Imam-ul-Haq, pushing at a ball outside off stump that he should have left, edged to gully.
Pakistan were 78 for 6 in the 11th over. The match was over. Australia had bowled with discipline, used the conditions intelligently, and reduced Pakistan's formidable top order to nothing in the space of eleven overs. Ellis had three wickets. Sangha had one. Green had two. The partnership totals of Pakistan's top seven batters, combined, was 62 runs.
And then Shadab Khan walked out at number eight.
Shadab's 71 — The Innings That Almost Did The Impossible
What Shadab Khan did over the next 104 balls was one of the most courageous batting performances Pakistan has produced in an ODI in recent years. And it is worth saying that clearly, without qualification, even though it ended in defeat. Because an innings does not have to win a match to be great. Sometimes the greatness is in the attempt.
He came to the crease with Pakistan 78 for 6 needing 154 more runs from 234 balls. The required rate was above 9. The pitch was offering assistance to the bowlers. The Australian fielding was sharp and aggressive. And Shadab — who is a genuine allrounder but has never been thought of primarily as a batting saviour — proceeded to play an innings of extraordinary quality.
He hit Ellis for four through covers in the first over he faced. He pulled Green over square leg for six. He drove Sangha — the spinner who had taken wickets throughout the innings — back over his head for another six. And he found partners: first Mohammad Nawaz, who contributed a valuable 34, then Shaheen Afridi, who hung around for 18 balls and ran hard between the wickets, and finally Arafat Minhas and Abrar Ahmed who gave him company until the very end.
The partnership with Nawaz produced 68 runs. By the time it ended — Nawaz caught at long-off — Pakistan needed 42 from 36, Shadab was on 68, and the Gaddafi Stadium crowd was making the kind of noise that only appears when something impossible is beginning to feel possible.
Then came Ellis's 45th over. Two wickets in two balls. And it was over.
Shadab finished unbeaten on 71 off 104 balls. He carried his bat from the moment he walked in to the moment the last wicket fell. And he stood at the non-striker's end when that last wicket fell, looking at the scoreboard, knowing he had done everything he possibly could and that it had not been enough.
The Gaddafi Stadium gave him a standing ovation as he walked off. He deserved every second of it.
Nathan Ellis — And Why Australia's Bowling Won This Match
Player of the Match: Nathan Ellis, 4 for 33. It is the correct decision, and it is not particularly close.
Ellis has been one of the underrated stories of Australian cricket in 2026. He does not generate the headlines that Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood produce. He does not have the profile of the three fast bowlers currently playing IPL cricket in India. But what he has is an ability to bowl the right ball at the right moment — the off-cutter that deceived Babar, the two wickets in two balls in the 45th over, the discipline through the middle overs that kept the required rate climbing when Shadab was threatening to make the chase real.
His four wickets came at crucial moments. Babar in the third over, when Pakistan needed their best batter to anchor the chase. Agha Salman in the seventh, when a platform was needed. Nawaz and Abrar in the 45th, when Shadab was making the impossible feel possible. Each wicket landed at precisely the moment Australia needed it most. That is not luck. That is a bowler who understands match situations and has the skill to execute under pressure.
What Happens On Thursday — And Why It Matters
The series decider is on Thursday, June 4, at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The same ground. The same pitch — though it will be a day older and likely slightly more worn. The same crowd.
Pakistan's ODI coach has taken to social media to defend the home pitches against criticism that they are not helping World Cup preparations. It is a fair point — the pitch in Lahore on Tuesday was a legitimate ODI surface, doing enough to keep the bowlers interested without being unplayable. But the debate about pitch preparation will be secondary on Thursday to the simple question of which team plays better cricket for 100 overs.
Pakistan won the first ODI on Arafat Minhas's extraordinary debut five-wicket haul and Babar Azam's composed 69. Australia won the second on Nathan Ellis's four wickets and a top-order batting collapse that Pakistan's middle order tried heroically to recover from.
Thursday is one match. Winner takes the series. Loser goes home with a 1-2 defeat and questions to answer before the ODI World Cup.
For Pakistan, the questions are clear: can their top order — Babar, Farhan, Rizwan — provide the platform that Shadab Khan had to build from nothing on Tuesday? Can Arafat Minhas replicate his debut performance on a Lahore pitch that may suit him slightly less than Rawalpindi's slower surface?
For Australia, the challenge is equally specific: can they defend a total, or chase one down, without the luxury of a batting collapse gifting them early momentum the way Tuesday's opening overs did?
Shadab Khan gave everything he had on Tuesday night and Pakistan still lost by 41 runs. On Thursday, they will need everyone — not just their number eight — to give the same.
Watch The Full Match Highlights
Shadab's extraordinary 71, Ellis's crucial four wickets, Pakistan's collapse and the partnership that almost made the impossible possible — all of it is in the official highlights right here:
Follow The Yorker Crew for complete Pakistan vs Australia series coverage — series decider Thursday at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.
📌 Also Read:
- His First Over In International Cricket. Five Wickets By The End Of It. Arafat Minhas Just Had The Most Extraordinary ODI Debut Pakistan Has Seen In Years.
- Australia Are Coming To Pakistan Without Their Best Players. Pakistan Have Just Lost A Test Series To Bangladesh. May 30 Cannot Come Soon Enough.
- Pakistan Have Lost 12 Of Their Last 16 Tests. They Just Lost To Bangladesh Again. And Nobody Seems To Know How To Stop It.
- 67 Innings. 2 Years of Criticism. One Night in Lahore That Changed Everything — Babar Azam Is Back.
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