Perth - Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur is adamant his side can still win the series despite a demoralising seven-wicket thrashing to Australia at the WACA on Thursday (January 19).  

In game three, Pakistan showcased moments of brilliance but were eventually overwhelmed by the hosts, who now have a decisive 2-1 lead in the five-match series. With Australia wobbling at 46/2 chasing 264, the match was delicately poised but a groundswell of momentum appeared to be shifting towards the visitors when Australian batsman Peter Handscomb was caught at slip for a third-ball duck. However, the debutant was called back when replays showed paceman Junaid Khan had overstepped. 

It was a costly moment as Handscomb (82 from 84 balls) combined with captain Steve Smith (unbeaten 108 off 104) in a match-winning third-wicket partnership of 183, as Australia easily chased down the total with five overs to spare. Arthur said Junaid's gaffe was the pivotal moment of the match and one Pakistan could not recover from. "We would have had them under pressure...our only chance was by taking early wickets and to have had them 3 for 40 odd (meant) we were right in the game," he told reporters after the match. "Where we are at a team we can't afford those little lapses. Every little opportunity we have to be taking against Australia in these conditions, so that is really disappointing. "  

Pakistan also made a hash of their batting after being in strong positions to post a total of over 300 but fell well short to eventually muster a middling 263 for 7, which proved not nearly enough. Arthur believed Pakistan were unable to bat with the consistency and application as showcased by Smith, who was imperious throughout his eighth One-Day International century. "I hope our batsmen watched (Smith) to see what it takes to bat the middle overs and make a match-winning contribution because he was superb again," he said. "We batted in fits and starts, which was disappointing. The one thing we've worked really hard on is our dot ball percentage. Today we had 152, which was more than 50 per cent...it isn't good enough. We have to rotate the strike better."  

There was much talk in the pre-match about whether Pakistan's batting could handle the WACA's pitch, which still has an air of mystique about it due to the bounce conjured from it. Bounce was evident although it was not as nearly menacing like the WACA's halcyon days, however, Arthur believed the conditions still played a factor in the result. "It does (make a difference), that's why I was insistent that our batsmen come to the nets (and train) for two days here," he said. "It would have been easy to give an optional training session and train one day. 

"But the key to the WACA is to get in the nets and train because the bounce is so different," he added. "They learned a great lesson of batting, particularly a guy like Babar (Azam) who has a massive future. Babar will play here again at some stage." 

Pakistan now needs to win in Sydney on Sunday (January 22) to keep the series alive but Arthur believed his team would welcome returning to more familiar conditions and revealed captain Azhar Ali should return after missing the past two matches with a hamstring injury.  

"We go to two grounds (Sydney and Adelaide) that suit our attack, the one ground that didn't was the WACA," he said. "We certainly would have been done well with Mohammad Irfan running in and really attacking Australia with our quicks. We had to make do with pace off the ball particularly in the middle overs. "We are confident we will get Azhar on Sunday. It's a massive boost, a little more solidarity in our top order and we are looking forward to having him back," he added.