CAPTAIN Aaron Finch snapped out of his form funk to ensure a depleted Australian side featuring three debutants ended their historic tour of Pakistan on a high with a three-wicket victory in the one-off T20 International in Lahore.

The dominant form of his counterpart Babar Adam (66 off 46) continued as Pakistan reached a competitive 162-8, but the hosts were stopped from going bigger by paceman Nathan Ellis (4-28) who struck consistently through the final overs of their innings.

Finch (55 off 44) then saw off an impressive spell from Usman Qadir, the former Perth Scorchers leg-spinner featuring in his first match against the country he once expressed a hope of playing for, to post his first half-century in 14 T20I innings.

The 35-year-old was caught on the boundary attempting to win the game with a six to precipitate a jittery finish, but Ben McDermott (22 off 19 from an unfamiliar No.7 spot) hit a boundary from the first ball of the final over to seal the win.

Australia handed maiden T20I caps to Cameron Green, Marnus Labuschagne and Ben Dwarshuis, while Josh Inglis (who recovered from COVID-19 after being sidelined from the preceding ODI campaign) took the gloves for the first time.

Inglis (24 off 25), along with Travis Head (26 off 14) and Marcus Stoinis (23 off nine), all played important cameos as Finch held anchor down at the other end
Fresh off two ducks in his previous two innings, Finch could have made it a third match in a row without scoring after he charged Hasan Ali on his first ball and got a thick inside-edge that missed his stumps and ran away for a boundary.

Qadir, the son of the late spin great Abdul, was Pakistan’s biggest threat with the ball and made two key breakthroughs during Australia’s run chase
But after dismissing Inglis and Labuschagne, the wrist-spinner lost his radar to allow Stoinis to blaze three boundaries from his first four balls to ease the pressure on the visitors, while he wasn’t helped by Khushdil Shah pulling out of a catch from Finch on the long-off boundary.

Inserted after the Aussie skipper won his first toss of the tour, Pakistan got off to a flyer thanks to Mohammad Rizwan (23 off 19) and Babar as the openers put on 56 inside the powerplay
Green (2-16) put the brakes on with two wickets in as many balls, bowling Rizwan with an off-spinning slower ball before Fakhar Zaman bunted a simple catch to mid-on from his first ball.

But despite losing Babar while in full flow thanks to some clever bowling from Adam Zampa (1-29), Pakistan still managed 50 runs from their final five overs as their bowlers Hasan (10 off four) and Qadir (18 off six) continued to clear the ropes.

Ellis bounced back after going for 14 from his first over, dismissing finishers Khushdil and Asif Ali before coming close to taking his second hat-trick of his three-game career.

The right-armer, who achieved the milestone on his T20I debut last year, struck on the first two balls of the penultimate over before unsuccessfully reviewing a caught-behind off Mohammad Wasim Jr the next delivery.

Finch, Stoinis and Zampa were the only three members of Australia’s T20 World Cup-winning XI to feature in the match with the others all injured or resting ahead of Indian Premier League (IPL) stints.

Ashton Agar was not picked for the clash having recently recovered from COVID-19. (Cricket.com.au)