The 20-over-a-side format which has taken England by storm seems to be just as popular in Australia, with more than 21,000 people packing into Adelaide Oval to watch the encounter.

On Thursday, a similar size crowd crammed into the Western Australian Cricket Association ground in Perth to watch state teams Western Australia and Victoria contest the country's inaugural first-class Twenty20 match.

Australia A won the toss and elected to bat, making 185 for five from their 20 overs, with Pakistan falling well short in their reply with 129 for seven.

The Australian innings was built on a 79-run fifth-wicket stand from 55 balls between Cameron White, who finished not out on 58 from 38 balls, and David Hussey, who smacked 50 from 44 balls.

But apart from those two, batsmen on both sides found it difficult to sustain an innings of any notable length while constantly slogging.

Australia A's next highest contributor was the 24 extras, which included six penalty runs for Pakistan failing to bowl its overs in the allotted 80 minutes.

For Pakistan, opener Taufeeq Umar was the best batsman, scoring 31 from 20 balls. Even with such a short innings, his was the seventh wicket to fall, as the tourists constantly lost wickets and never looked like getting close to the 186 needed for victory.

Left-arm paceman Nathan Bracken's tight opening spell of 1-7 from three overs immediately made things very difficult for the visitors.

Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq, batting at number six, made 21 from 22 balls, but his scoring was nowhere near fast enough in the circumstances.

For Pakistan, there was some good news with the return of speedster Shoaib Akhtar from injury. He finished with 2-37 from his four overs and should now be available to play in his team's opening tri-series international 50-over match against Australia in Hobart on Sunday.

(Article: Copyright © 2005 AFP)