Fawad Ahmed makes impressive debut for Oz

Sydney: Former Pakistani refugee Fawad Ahmed had made a breakthrough performance with his first full international wickets at Chester-le-Street, although it failed to prevent his adopted homeland Australia suffering a 29-run loss to England in the second Twenty20 international on Saturday.

According to News.com.au, Ahmed finished with 3-25 at Chester-le-Street in only his second appearance for Australia, justifying Australia`s faith in him after their successful efforts to make him an Australian citizen. The report further said that the leg-spinner`s performance helped keep England to 5-195 from 20 overs, although Australia could only manage 9-168 in response. According to the report, Ahmed, who fled to Australia from Pakistan in 2010 as an asylum seeker, came a long way made a wicket-less debut in Australia`s 39-run win in the opening T20 in Southampton on Thursday, and showed that he deserves a call-up for the return Ashes series. The report further said that England`s win was set up by opener Alex Hales` impressive 94 from 61 balls while David Warner led the chase for Australia with 53 off 42, which ensured that two-match T20 series was drawn ahead of the five-match one-day battle starting next week. Australia will head to Edinburgh for a one-off 50-over match against Scotland on Tuesday before returning for the start of the ODI series against England in Leeds on Friday, the report added. ANI