Australia defeated Pakistan in the ICC ODI World Cup match on Friday due to century innings by openers David Warner (163) and Mitchell Marsh (121) and a strong performance by the bowlers after a partnership of 259 runs in 203 balls for the first wicket. Has been defeated by 62 runs.
Man of the Match Warner scored his fourth consecutive century and 21st century in ODIs against Pakistan by hitting 14 fours and nine sixes in his 124-ball innings. Marsh hit 10 fours and nine sixes during his second century innings. After scoring 367 runs for nine wickets, Australia bowled out Pakistan for 305 runs in 45.3 overs with the help of Adam Zampa (four wickets for 53 runs) and Marcus Stoinis (two wickets for 40 runs).
This is Australia’s second win in four matches while this is Pakistan’s second defeat. For Pakistan, openers Imam ul Haq (70) and Abdullah Shafiq (64) played half-centuries and both added 134 runs for the first wicket. Under the pressure of a big target, Mohammad Rizwan (46) and Saud Shakeel (30) could not convert the good start into a big innings.
Chasing the target, Shafiq and Imam gave a solid start to Pakistan. Both of them batted cautiously in the first 10 overs and then hit some powerful blows. Meanwhile, in the 12th over, substitute player Sean Abbott dropped the catch of Shafiq on the ball of Pat Cummins (two wickets for 62 runs) and the ball went for six runs.
Imam hit a four against Zampa on the last ball of the 17th over, completing Pakistan’s century of runs. In the next over, Shafiq scored one run and Imam completed his half-century with a four against Maxwell. In search of the wicket, captain Cummins handed the ball to Stoinis and this bowler dismissed Shafiq on the very first ball.
In the very next over, Stoinis showed Imam the way to the pavilion. Imam hit 10 fours in 71 balls. Although captain Babar Azam (18) showed aggressive behavior with two fours against Stoinis as soon as he came to the crease, he played Zampa’s ball into the hands of Cummins.
Pakistan completed 200 runs in the 30th over with Shakeel’s four. Rizwan hit two fours against Glenn Maxwell and Shakeel did not allow the required run rate to increase much by hitting Mitchell Starc (one wicket for 65 runs). Cummins ended Shakeel’s innings in the 35th over and also broke his 57-run partnership with Rizwan for the fourth wicket in 48 balls.
Iftikhar Ahmed (26), who came to the crease, increased the worries of the Australian camp by hitting two sixes in the over of Cummins and one six against Stoinis, but Zampa trapped him and Rizwan in his spin and LBW and the match went out of Pakistan’s hands. .
Earlier, this was only the fourth time in World Cup history when both the opening batsmen scored centuries in the same match. At one time the Australian team was moving towards the score of 400 but due to the excellent performance of the bowlers in the last 10 overs under the leadership of Shaheen Shah Afridi (five wickets for 54 runs in 10 overs), Australia was restricted to within 370 runs.
During this, Warner made his second highest score of the World Cup by taking advantage of the two lives he got on 10 and 105 runs, while Marsh also played big shots easily, taking advantage of the flat pitch and short boundary of M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Pakistan’s bowlers also bowled poorly in the initial overs, on which Warner and Marsh had no problem in scoring runs.
If Usman Mir had caught Warner on Shaheen’s ball at the beginning of the innings, Pakistan would not have had to face so much trouble. At this time Warner was on 10 runs while Australia’s score was 22 runs. After this Warner batted fearlessly.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam, in search of a wicket, gave the ball to Haris Rauf (three wickets for 83 runs) in the ninth over, but Warner and Marsh scored 24 runs from this over. Hasan Ali’s balls were getting swing in the initial overs but later Warner scored runs easily against him. During this, one of his six fell on the roof of the stadium.