Smith masterclass brings capital gains for Australia

Some say he will be talked about in the same manner as Sir Donald Bradman.

So it was somewhat fitting those in the grandstand bearing the name of the greatest of all time rose to their feet in admiration of another Steven Peter Devereux Smith masterclass.

The superstar batsman led Australia to a seven-wicket victory over Pakistan in front of 8848 at Manuka Oval on Tuesday night.

Smith scored 80 not out (51) as Australia chased down Pakistan's 6-150 with nine balls to spare to take a 1-0 lead heading into the final match of the three-game Twenty20 series.

Few batsmen anywhere in the world can play such unorthodox strokes and boast all the answers regardless of what is sent down at him.

Smith does not boast the power of the likes of David Warner and Aaron Finch, nor the footwork of many that have gone before.

Steve Smith swats another wayward delivery away to the boundary.Credit: Getty

Yet it matters not. The wagon wheel showing where his runs came from won't even do him justice.

Though for some time it seemed as though this would be Warner's night - just as it was in his last outing in the capital three summers ago when he scored a century in a one-day game.

For a piece of individual brilliance in the field had removed Pakistan captain Babar Azam for 50 and helped keep the tourists to a below-par total earlier in the evening.

Alas, Warner's golden run at the top of the order came to an end with his first dismissal of the international summer as Mohammad Amir rattled his stumps for 20.

He will still enter the final match of the Twenty20 series against Pakistan with 239 runs to his name from his past five outings in a welcome sign leading into the home summer.

And the Australian XI will head to Perth on Friday as cricket's most in-form Twenty20 outfit after accounting for a side which had been clinging onto its No. 1 ranking.

Game three looms as a chance for Australia to close out the series after a game-one washout reduced it to a best of two scenario.

Babar won the toss and elected to bat on a deck renowned for high scores - the average total throughout four Big Bash games at Manuka Oval is 172.

The premier batsman in the game's shortest format looked like poetry in motion en route to 50, with every stroke a suggestion Australia's bowlers are still searching for a way to crack the Babar code.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam proved a tough nut for Australia's bowlers to crack.Credit: Getty Images

It was fitting that only a freakish piece of fielding from Warner could send him on his way as Babar scrambled back for a second run, only to be brought undone by a direct hit from the deep.

The saving grace for Australia, for whom Ashton Agar was the pick of the bowlers with 2-23, saving grace is the fact the 25-year-old stood before them for some time as a one-man army.

Another cheap dismissal for his fellow opener Fakhar Zaman (2) marks his fifth consecutive single figure score and revives questions about his place at the top of the order.

Iftikhar would rise up with a defiant half-century to inspire a late flurry with 67 runs from the final three overs to give the visitors an unlikely shot at victory.

Unlikely it was, because they ran into a man named Smith.

It wasn't all smooth sailing - Ben McDermott's eventual leg before wicket dismissal for 21 raised questions about the absence of the ball-tracking review system in the Fox Cricket coverage - but it was unavailable on that ball due to an isolated human error.