In the absence of heavyweights in the Australian bowling unit, Andrew Tye rose to the occasion with his third consecutive three-wicket haul in the T20 International Tri-Series match Pakistan at Harare on Thursday.

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After Aaron Finch had won the toss and invited Pakistan for a hit, Tye came into bowl in the fifth over and was on the spot straight away. In his first over, he induced a false shot off Hussain Talat but was unfortunately grassed at mid-off. However, he put the brakes on the scoring rate later as he removed a dangerous-looking Sarfraz Ahmed and a well-set Shoaib Malik. Tye returned for his final over and got rid of Shadab Khan to finish with figures of 3/35.

Nevertheless, Pakistan scored a competitive 194/7 that Australia failed to chase, going down by 45 runs at the end.

Tye stood out as silver lining. The Kings XI Punjab pacer now has 19 scalps in nine T20I games and is the highest wicket taker in 2018 in the format.

The peculiarity of Tye as a bowler is the truckloads of wickets he takes in the first innings of a T20I game. Of his 25 wickets in 16 T20I matches, Tye has 18 first innings scalps in just six outings. The Western Australian who, was the leading wicket-taker in this year’s VIVO Indian Premier League, also has the most number of wickets in this T20I Tri-series.

Australia will now face Zimbabwe next on Friday.