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Cameron Green’s all-around performance and some outstanding fielding enabled Australia to defeat Scotland 3-0 in Edinburgh.
Australia overcame the challenge of losing their openers early in the chase and finished with 23 balls remaining when Green first recorded his career-best statistics to help restrict the hosts to 149 for 9. He then went on to anchor the pursuit with his greatest score.
Against Australia, Brandon McMullen made his third half-century in as many games, but it was insufficient as only he and opener George Munsey were able to significantly impact the Scottish innings.
Australia had a nervous start to their chase, unlike in the opening match of the series, when they hammered 156 in ten overs. With a brilliant dive to his left at backward point, McMullen got rid of Jake Fraser-McGurk off Brad Currie for the batter’s second consecutive series duck.
For the second match in a straight, Currie dismissed Head to long-on in his subsequent over, accounting for both of Australia’s openers in his opening two overs.
However, Mitchell Marsh, who had dropped to No. 3 in the second game, and Cameron Green cobbled together a 61-run stand to put Australia ahead.
In the powerplay, Currie was handed a third over in a row as Scotland attempted to capitalise on the early movement available. However, in the sixth over, Marsh and Green took on the left-arm fast, blasting him for sixes between deep midwicket and long-on.
Marsh then got a boundary off Safyaan Sharif and pulled Chris Sole for a six. Green drove Mark Watt for four when he entered the attack, then launched him for a six over long-on.
Then, Jack Jarvis gave Scotland a breakthrough when Marsh was cut down while attempting to pull a long ball that became lodged in the pitch.
Green and Tim David, however, persisted in their assault, striking sixes in each of the following three overs, the best of which was a reverse-sweeping blow from Watt over backward point.
Green subsequently ran Jarvis to the ground and, with a single, reached a 33-ball fifty.
Australia needed just 19 off 34 balls when David, who had struck two fours to end that Jarvis over, holed out off Sole’s slower short ball to deep-backward square leg.
Before Aaron Hardie scored the winning runs with a square drive for his second boundary, Green persisted in his attack on Watt, hitting him for six more runs.