Pakistan were saved by the rain on Sunday as persistent showers halted a rampant Aaron Finch as Australia headed for victory in their opening Twenty20 international.

The visitors managed 107 for five in a reduced 15 overs due to the weather at the Sydney Cricket Ground, with Australia set a target of 119 under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method.

With dark clouds looming, Finch plundered 37 off the first 3.1 overs, leaving David Warner, who scored 217 without losing his wicket in his previous three innings, a mere spectator at the other end. He finished Sunday not out on two.

But the heavens opened again, with Australia, fresh from a 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka, stranded on 41 without loss when the match was abandoned, with no result declared.

"It's frustrating," said the Australian skipper. "But you can't do too much about the weather. "We played really well. To restrict them to 107 off 15 overs was a great effort and then to be on track to get them was nice."

A valid result would have been declared if 11 more balls had been bowled under DLS, but a 20-minute break between innings, when it wasn't raining, prevented this from happening.

"If you're cutting overs off the game and you still have a 20-minute break it doesn't make much sense to me," said Finch. "But it's part of the rules and you can't do much about it."

Pakistan came into the series as the world's leading team in the short format but were also reeling from an embarrassing 3-0 home series loss to Sri Lanka last month.

They removed skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed and dumped several other players in a bid for a fresh start, with opener Babar Azam handed the captain's armband.

The world's top-ranked Twenty20 batsman led from the front, stroking a classy unbeaten 59 after they were sent into bat, with the 25-year-old smacking five fours and two sixes in his 38-ball knock.

It was a decent recovery by the visitors after opener Fakhar Zaman was out first ball, hitting a swinging Mitchell Starc delivery straight to Steve Smith at backward point.

That brought Haris Sohail to the crease, but he made a poor decision in going after Kane Richardson too early, top edging to Smith to leave the visitors struggling at 10 for two.

But Azam and Mohammad Rizwan steadied the ship and began building a solid partnership, pushing the scoreboard along with clever running and quality shots.

They reached the 10-over mark at 64 for two but Rizwan soon fell for an entertaining 31 after trying to clear the boundary rope off spinner Ashton Agar, only for Pat Cummins take an easy catch.

When they resumed at 88 for three in the 13th over after a rain break, Asif Ali fell to Richardson for 11 and Imad Wasim to Starc for a duck, leaving Azam to bring up his 11th T20 half-century.

The series moves to Canberra on Tuesday and a final game in Perth.

Feature image courtesy: AFP/ Saeed Khan

Swashbuckling batsman Haris Sohail, whose return to form has helped revive Pakistan's World Cup hopes, said he bore no grudges after being unceremoniously dropped earlier in the tournament.

The 30-year-old left-hander has come back strongly, posting scores of 89 and 68 in victories against South Africa and New Zealand to keep alive his side's hopes of reaching the semi-finals.

Sohail, dropped after scoring just eight when the West Indies shot Pakistan out for a paltry 105 at Nottingham, said he had accepted the decision.

"As a sportsman I believe that whatever is best for the team should happen," Sohail said on Friday. "I was confident that whenever I will get a chance I will give 100 percent."

The batsman said his partnership with century-maker Babar Azam was crucial in the win over New Zealand, who had been unbeaten coming into the match.

"We, Babar and I, are given a role and that is to build partnerships and in both the games I had good stands with Babar and I am sure that will continue," said Sohail.

The Babar-Sohail stand for the fourth wicket yielded 81 in Pakistan's impressive total of 308-7 against South Africa, while they added a match-winning 126 against New Zealand.

Sohail warned that Pakistan could not take Afghanistan lightly in Saturday's match at Headingley, even though the Afghans have lost all seven of their matches so far.

"Afghanistan's progress at international level is very good -- they have quality spinners so there is no way we could take them lightly," said Sohail.

"They did beat us in a warm-up game but that was a practice game and this match will be a different one, but we need to come at full power to beat them."

Pakistan's last league match will be against Bangladesh at Lord's on July 5.

They need to win both of their remaining games and hope other results go their way to reach the semi-finals.

Australia are the only team to have qualified so far for the last four from the 10-team round-robin stage.

Feature image courtesy: Twitter / ICC

Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed likened Haris Sohail to England master blaster Jos Buttler on Sunday, saying his innings was the turning point in Pakistan's win over South Africa at Lord's.

Pakistan revived their chances of reaching the last four of the World Cup by beating South Africa by 49 runs.

Sohail smashed nine fours and three sixes during his knock of 89 in 59 balls, putting on 81 for the fourth wicket with Babar Azam (69) and 71 for the fifth wicket with Imad Wasim (23).

That lifted Pakistan to an impressive 308-7 before Wahab Riaz (3-46), Shadab Khan (3-50) and Mohammad Amir (2-49) restricted South Africa to 259-9 in their 50 overs.

The defeat for the Proteas means they can no longer reach the World Cup semi-finals.

"Haris was hungry to play in this game," said Sarfaraz of the left-hander, who was dropped after scoring just eight in Pakistan's opening defeat against the West Indies.

"He's the main factor, the turning point, the way he batted in the last 15 overs, it was like Buttler."

Pakistan added 124 runs in the last 15 overs.

Pakistan brought in Sohail and fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi in place of Shoaib Malik and Hasan Ali after the defeat to bitter rivals India in Manchester last week.

They desperately needed a win after three defeats in five games together with one victory and one match rained off.

"We changed the combination in this game," said Sarfaraz, who was criticised for poor captaincy in the India game. "We went with another combination in the last game so sometimes change is good for the team."

Sarfaraz praised his bowlers for taking wickets regularly.

"I think credit goes to Amir and Wahab who took early wickets and then Shadab was really good in the middle overs," said Sarfaraz.

Pakistan are now seventh in the 10-team table, with five points. They have games against New Zealand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to come.

Sarfaraz admitted his team still needed to improve their sloppy fielding.

"We have to work harder on fielding," said Sarfaraz, whose team dropped five catches against South Africa, with Amir alone grassing three.

"We once again dropped so many catches so now with all three matches very crucial we have to sort it out so that it could support our bowling."

Feature image courtesy: Twitter

Haris Sohail boosted Pakistan's bid to avoid World Cup elimination with a blistering 89 in his side's 308 for seven against fellow strugglers South Africa on Sunday.

Sohail was making just his second appearance at this year's World Cup and his dashing display at Lord's suggested he should have been involved more often.

The 30-year-old, dropped following Pakistan's opener against the West Indies, made up for lost time as he demolished South Africa's beleaguered bowlers.

Hitting nine fours and three sixes in his 59-ball blitz, Sohail gave Pakistan a shot of adrenaline after Babar Azam's more sedate 69 laid the foundations.

With only one win apiece, Pakistan and South Africa both need a victory to keep alive their slender hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals via a top-four finish in the 10-team group stage.

Beaten by bitter rivals India in their last match, Pakistan's players spent the past week involved in a series of spats with frustrated fans both in person and on social media.

After Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed won the toss and decided to bat first, Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq lifted morale with a stand of 81 for the first wicket

Zaman slapped Kagiso Rabada's second ball of the match through the covers for a tone-setting four.

The green-shirt-clad Pakistan fans who made up the majority of the crowd were on their feet cheering when Zaman's effortless six off Lungi Ngidi made it 44-0 from the first six overs.

Zaman had a narrow escape when he slogged Chris Morris to Imran Tahir, who claimed he made the catch after running in from the boundary.

The umpires asked for a review that showed the Pakistan-born South African's fingers were not under the ball as it hit the turf.

Tahir was booed by Pakistan fans when he came on to bowl, but the leg-spinner got his revenge when Zaman attempted a bizarre scooped shot that saw him caught in the slips by Hashim Amla on 44.

Not surprisingly, Tahir's trademark celebration sprint around the pitch seemed a little more vigorous than usual.

Tahir was just getting warmed up and he produced a sublime catch off his own bowling to dismiss Imam for 44.

Lunging low to pluck the ball just before it hit the ground, Tahir was ecstatic as he blew kisses to his detractors in the crowd.

Tahir's 39th World Cup scalp made him South Africa's all-time leading wicket-taker in the tournament.

Mohammad Hafeez departed for 20, lbw to Aiden Markram, to leave Pakistan 143-3 in the 30th over.

That brought Sohail to the crease and his aggression, including a four and a six from successive Rabada deliveries, restored Pakistan's momentum.

Babar stepped on the gas as he went past 50, but he holed out to Ngidi on the boundary off Andile Phehlukwayo to end an 80-ball innings featuring seven fours.

Sohail smashed a four to reach his 50 in 38 balls and saw Pakistan through to the last over before mistiming a pull off Ngidi.

Feature image courtesy: Twitter/ @cricketworldcup

Pakistan's Haris Sohail insists that it's important for his team to focus on getting used to conditions during the five-match ODI series in England before the 2019 ICC World Cup in May.

Of the overseas teams, Pakistan is at the greatest advantage in terms of adapting to conditions for the World Cup as they will be facing the hosts in an ODI series days before the World Cup begins.

Counting the sole Twenty20 International and the warm-up matches, Pakistan will end up playing close to 10 matches before the World Cup starts. 

But Sohail isn't thinking much far ahead. "The World Cup is still a little while away," Sohail to the ICC. "Before that, we have a very important series against England. England is a quality side, the No.1 Team. If we win that series, we'll get a great deal of help in getting used to those conditions. We still have about 10 matches to go before the World Cup if you count all the practice matches. So we're hopeful of Getting acclimatised well and producing good results at the World Cup."

Though the team has been struggling, Sohail has been in fine touch coming into England. In the recently concluded series against Australia, the Sailkot player notched up two centuries and will be hoping to enjoy a similar run in England. "Since the Australia series, I haven't felt too great, but a match situation is different, and the [practice] match we played today, the ball felt Great On the bat."