Australia Vs Pakistan: The Aussies and Pakistan had a face-off against each other in the One Day International format at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The current ODI World Cup champions, Australia won the toss and invited the visitors, Pakistan to bat first in the 1st ODI of this three-match series.
This match went down as a nail-biting one as the bowlers from Pakistan posed a challenge in front of the Aussie batters. The Men in Green could only muster 203 runs in 46.4 overs. Pakistan’s newly appointed skipper was the top run-getter in their innings. Mohammad Rizwan scored 44 runs in his first outing as the skipper of Pakistan’s white ball format.
But there was no support from the other end and a senior player like Babar Azam, who got a decent start but the former Pakistani skipper could not convert that start into a substantial score. Azam scored just 37 runs to his name in the ODI series opening match.
The visitors got to 203 runs mainly because of Naseem Shah’s 39 ball 40 runs. Shah slammed one boundary and four sixes in his cameo innings. Naseem was also well supported by Shaheen Shah Afridi with the bat in hand. The lead Pakistan pace bowler scored a useful 24 runs from 19 deliveries with three fours and one six.
Due to those two innings, Pakistan scored more than two hundred runs while batting first. Otherwise, Pakistan would not have posed a good challenge to the Australian batters with the ball later in the innings. Starc picked one wicket with Cummins and Zampa got one scalp each and Sean Abbort picked up one wicket to his name.
Australia also didn’t get off to a good start despite chasing a small score. Pakistan’s new ball bowler, Shaheen Shah Afridi picked up Matthew Short for just one run and later in the next over, Naseem Shah got Jake Fraser–McGurk for 16 runs. Steve Smith and the keeper batter of the Aussies, Josh Inglis steadied the ship for the home side.
It looked like the experienced batsmen like Smith and Inglis will take Australia through this run chase quite easily without any further hiccups. Steve and Josh were batting in their forties and were about to reach their half-century in this ODI match. But the former Aussie skipper Smith got out on 44.
The game again tilted in the favour of Pakistan as Josh Inglish, Marus Labuschagne and Glenn Maxwell were also dismissed in quick succession. Josh was out on 49 runs, which was the highest score for the Aussies in their innings and in this game. Inglis was dismissed because of a very good catch taken by Irfan Khan.
Pakistan was at the top of the game as they also dismissed Aaron Hardie and Sean Abbort was also run out. However, the two senior pace bowlers of Australia took them over the line without any further damage. Australia survived the Haris Rauf scare to win this encounter.
Skipper Pat Cummins was unbeaten on 32 runs and Mitchell Starc was not out on 2 runs as the Aussies won this match by two wickets. The pace bowlers of Pakistan tried hard but the score was too small to defend. Haris picked three wickets, Shaheen got two wickets with Naseem and Hasnain got one scalp each.
Also Read: Australia Vs Pakistan: How Many ODI Matches Has The Men In Green Won In The Baggy Green Nation?
