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| Adam Jumper celebrates after taking the wicket:AFP |
Australia: 367/9 in 50 overs
Pakistan: 305 in 45.3 overs Result: Australia won by 62 runs A few days ago, Pakistan set a record for winning runs in the World Cup against Sri Lanka, this time they had to break that record against Australia. David Warner's 124-ball 163, Mitchell Marsh's 108-ball 121 and the duo's record 259-run opening partnership made Australia 367 runs. Batting with a big target on the small pitch of Bangalore, Pakistan have been going their own way for a long time - keeping the run rate healthy with wickets in hand. But that didn't work, the team lost wickets at crucial times, all the recognized batsmen got off to a good start but none could play a big innings. The record is therefore not made anew by Pakistan. In the end it was a big 62-run victory for Australia, after losing the first two matches the five-time world champions bounced back nicely by winning the next two. On the other hand, Pakistan lost the second match in a row. Pakistan's poor fielding contributed to Australia's big score. The virus was also transmitted in Australia. Both Pakistan's openers got life, with Abdullah Shafiq on 27 followed by Imam-ul-Haq on 48. Pakistan scored 100 runs in the 17th over. For the first time since 2015, the team has scored a hundred runs in the first wicket in the World Cup. Both the opening batsmen scored half-centuries at a strike rate touching 100. This is the first time in the World Cup that all four openers of both teams have scored 50 in the same match. After Shafiq, Imam - both took catches off Marcus Stoinis, who came in as the sixth bowler. Babar got off to a positive start, but the Pakistan captain has grown a bit more than expected to see a big innings in this World Cup. He was stopped by a brilliant catch by Pat Cummins off Adam Jumper. Babar once again understood the value of a catch in batting. Despite his return, the duo of Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel gave Pakistan hope. They crossed 200 at about the same time as Australia. But Shakil's outs again fell. At the time Pakistan wanted, Iftikhar Ahmed had to get off a little earlier. However, Iftikhar was indicating that Stoinis was becoming dangerous by hitting three sixes after Cummins.  Australia won the second consecutive victory:AFP Then Zampa came into the scene again. The injury-plagued leg-spinner ended Pakistan's last hope. After Rizwan, Iftikhar, Mohammad Nawaz's wicket is also his. Australia get iftikhar's LBW review. Naturally, the pressure on Rizwan increased on his wicket, Pakistan were one batsman short in the absence of Shadab Khan. Jumper says Rizwan LBW is virtually the end of the reckoning. Rizwan didn't live with the review, got out on the umpire's call. Pakistan reached 300 in 45.3 overs before being bowled out, but that remained a consolation.
After losing the toss and batting, Australia was still missing 400 or more runs at one time. That didn't happen at the end with the great bowling of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf. Afridi took 5 wickets, Rauf who gave 59 runs in the first 4 overs took 3 with 24 runs in the last 4 overs. Australia lost 5 wickets after scoring 37 runs in the last 7 overs. However, Pakistan could have stopped Australia earlier had they not taken easy catches at crucial times. Usama Mir took the easiest catch of Warner for 10 runs, Abdullah Shafiq for 105 runs. Pakistan fell into disarray after Warner's first catch, and nothing went their way for a long time. Bowling at random line-lengths, Pakistan looked disoriented on the field. In between, the spin-pair of Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz slowed down a little, but they did not see wickets quickly.  Mitchell Marsh and David Warner scored double centuries:AFP In the 31st over, Warner and Marsh completed their centuries with two balls in a row. Warner brought up his 21st career century and fifth World Cup century off 85 balls, his fourth in a row against Pakistan. Marsh needs 100 balls to reach his second career century on his 32nd birthday. It was only the fourth time in the World Cup that two openers scored centuries in the same innings, a first for Australia. After Afridi was bowled by Babar in search of a wicket, Marsh welcomed him with a six in the first 2 balls of the 34th over. But after the last 2 balls, Afridi sent Maxwell back. Pakistan's first wicket came from Mir's catch. Mir could have got the wicket of Smith in the next over, this time Babar was caught at slip. Warner stopped because of Roofe, so did Josh Inglis and Marnus Labuschagne. After Stoinis, Afridi hit the bottom of Pakistan's batting order, taking the first 2 wickets of the last over to take 5 wickets for the second time in the World Cup.
Earlier in the World Cup, Australia hit 14 sixes in one innings, today Warner and Marsh hit 18 together. However, after those two, Australia had only one six in the innings. In the innings, the image of two halves of Australia also appears. However, Pakistan managed to hit only 6 sixes in the innings, which is also helpful to understand the difference between the two teams. |
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