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Australia Beat Pakistan with a Two-wicket Win Over Pakistan in First ODI at MCG
Australia Beat Pakistan with a Two-wicket Win Over Pakistan in First ODI at MCG
Pat Cummins played a crucial knock to beat Pakistan
Mohammad Rizwan's white-ball captaincy stint started with a bitter two-wicket defeat in the opening ODI against Australia at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Monday. Cummins was Australia's guiding light, who ensured that his team safely got home when the chase became a nervy affair for his side.
Chasing just 204 after Starc took 3 for 33 from 10 overs, including three maidens, Australia slumped from 139 for 3, after Steven Smith and Josh Inglis were in control, to 155 for 7 on the back of Rauf's raucous burst. That became 185 for 8 when Sean Abbott was run out, after he had nearly run out Cummins. But skipper held firm, as he had at Edgbaston, Mumbai, Kolkata and Christchurch over the past 18 months.
After an 85-run stand, Smith made an uncharacteristic error. He slashed a cut off Rauf straight to backward point to be out for 44.
Pakistan's insistence on going short to Inglis paid off when he nailed another pull shot off Shaheen only to see Irfan run a long way to hang on to an outstanding catch in the deep.
Australia set up the win with the ball. Most of Pakistan's batters, with the exception of Babar Azam who made a classy 37 off 44, were exposed on a fast and bouncy MCG pitch after being sent in having come straight from the low spinning Test pitches of Multan and Rawalpindi last month. Rizwan top scored with 44 off 71 balls while Naseem made an outstanding 40 off 39 with four sixes from No. 9 to ensure Australia was at least chasing more than 200.
Starc and Cummins, fresh and in rhythm ahead of a big summer, put on a show in front of a very pro-Pakistan crowd. Starc's 140kph thunderbolts accounted for Saim Ayub on debut and Abdullah Shafique.
Some late hitting from Naseem, Shaheen Afridi, and Irfan Khan, in the mould of the man who had presented his debut cap in Wasim Akram, lifted Pakistan from a dire position at 117 for 6 to 203.
Naseem and Shaheen showed the type of intent that Pakistan's top order could have used, launching five sixes between them after the entire top seven had contributed one, before Shaheen was castled by Starc for 24 off 19.
Naseem feasted on spin, launching Zampa into the stands twice and Maxwell once. But Naseem also launched Sean Abbott over deep midwicket. He holed out to mid-off to end the innings. Had he batted until the end, it might have been enough.
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