Pakistan will host Australia for the third and last ODI of the series, in Lahore on Saturday, 2 April.
The series now lies in the balance after Pakistan hit back from losing the opening game to level the series on Friday. Having lost the Test series, Pakistan will be keen to not lower their colours for the second time in a week.
There were parallels between the first two ODIs. Pakistan had won the toss and bowled on both occasions, and, in both matches, Travis Head and Ben McDermott had impressed with bat for Australia, and Pakistan lent heavily on Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam in their reply.
However, in the second match, the other opener, Fakhar Zaman, made a big contribution with the bat, and the top-ranked ODI batter in the world, Babar, more than doubled his score from Tuesday, before he fell for 114.
That meant that, although Pakistan had to chase a bigger total on Thursday than they had faced on Tuesday, they were always in touch with the asking rate, and got home with one over to spare.
Another feature of Thursday’s victory was how Pakistan dominated Australian spin pair of Azam Zampa and Mitchell Swepson. On Tuesday they had 6-81 between them, but in the second match they had 2-121.
Both teams are likely to feature unchanged sides. Australia, because they do not have much in reserve, and Pakistan because, with the series on the line, they will feel this is no time to experiment.
Likely XIs:
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Fakhar Zaman, Imam ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Zahid Mehmood.
Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Travis Head, Ben McDermott, Marnus Labuschagne, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Cam Green, Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Swepson.
Fantasy Tips:
• Pick Imam and Babar. One or both of them will make another big score;
• Finch needs runs to put himself in contention for the World Cup next year. This can be the match where he stakes his claim.
• Back Pakistan.