AUSTRALIA’S perfectly timed return to one-day prominence ahead of the looming World Cup has seen them romp to their sixth straight victory, with their stars sealing a series triumph over Pakistan.

Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell played contrasting innings of substance, before Pat Cummins delivered the knockout blow with the new ball to see the Aussies claim an 80-run victory in the third ODI in Abu Dhabi.

Finch got within 10 runs of becoming the first Australian to score centuries in three consecutive ODIs, a feat only 10 men, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Kumar Sangakkara among them, have achieved.

With scores of 116, 153 not out and 90 in the first three games of the campaign, Finch has emphatically re-established himself as an indispensable member of Australia’s top-order for the World Cup.

The opener’s 136-ball knock was far from his most fluent innings, finding the fence just six times, but the late fireworks from his close friend Maxwell ensured Australia posed a competitive 6-266.

Maxwell creamed 71 from just 55 deliveries, his highest ODI score in two years, to send a timely reminder of his finishing capabilities with returns of Steve Smith and David Warner looming.
In his first game back following a two-game rest, Cummins (3-23 off eight overs) found extravagant seam movement under lights to make a mess of Pakistan’s top-order, as he snared three wickets in 11 balls all caught behind the wicket.

Leg-spinner Adam Zampa then cleaned up the tail to finish up with 4-43 from 9.4 overs.
Australia’s six-game win streak is the longest stretch they’ve put together since the 2015 World Cup, while it’s the first time in two-and-a-half years they’ve won back-to-back ODI series abroad.

They now turn their attention to the final two games of the series in Dubai tomorrow and Sunday, where they’ll be targeting their first five-game series whitewash abroad in over a decade.

Having initially struggled to get into his rhythm, as Pakistan’s innings begun, during a steady flow of rain, Cummins obliterated his opposition’s hopes of keeping the series alive when he eventually found his groove.

Handscomb took a blinder at slip off Shan Masood (2), before Haris Sohail (1) and Rizwan (three-ball duck) on review both followed in the same over after a rain delay, all to Cummins.

Maxwell’s (1-21 off five overs) good night continued when he had Imam-ul-Haq (46) lbw (with debutant umpire Asif Yaqoob’s call standing up to a review after the first two ‘out’ decisions of his career were overturned) as did Cummins’ with a sliding outfield catch.
Shoaib Malik (31), Umar Akmal (36) and Imad Wasim (43) all scraped to keep Pakistan alive, but their top-order’s failure to fire proved fatal as Pakistan lost their last five wickets for 37 runs.