Australia Pakistan
Flickr photo by Marc shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND 2.0) license.

Australia hold their nerve against Pakistan in seesaw battle

Mustafa Ismail·
One Day International (ODI)
·0 Comments·

The rain stayed away despite another gloomy weather forecast and we managed to get in a full game of cricket between Australia and Pakistan…

Pakistan came up against Australia and it turned out to be a cracker, with plenty of twists and turns along the road. However, it was the Aussies who kept their cool and bagged two crucial points. The pitch and conditions deceived everyone, including the captains, as Sarfaraz Ahmed won the toss and elected to bowl first. Almost everyone at the ground would’ve made the same decision, with dark clouds covering the ground and a healthy tinge of grass on the pitch. Instead, it turned out to be a batting paradise. After a watchful few overs at the start of the innings, the Australian openers took control of the match.

David Warner, in particular, was impressive. He learnt from his mistakes against India, managing to find the boundary regularly and consistently rotating strike. Apart from Mohammad Amir, the rest of the Pakistani bowlers started poorly. They bowled too short and provided Australia with scoring opportunities. There was a bit of help for the bowlers if they pitched it up but the likes of Hasan Ali and Shaheen Afridi, in particular, were banging it in short and getting thumped.

Pakistan’s fielding was also appalling. There were plenty of dropped catches and misfields, which turned out to be costly in the end. Aaron Finch was dropped at slip by Asif Ali when he was on 26 and the Australian captain made Pakistan pay as he notched with 82 off 84 balls. Warner also ended up with a brilliant century, which displayed the mental strength and determination of the southpaw. He was far more fluid and although he was dismissed straight after his hundred, the innings will boost his confidence tremendously going into the next few games.

Australia were heading for a total close to 350 but we saw the other side of Pakistan in the second half of the innings. A fantastic spell from Amir with the older ball restricted Australia to 307 and brought Pakistan right back into the contest. The left-arm pacer looked good throughout and picked up a flurry of wickets in the final ten overs. He was rewarded for pitching the ball up to the batsmen and picked up his first five-wicket haul. The milestone will allow him to breathe a sigh of relief, especially after his recent drought.

Despite losing Fakhar Zaman early in the second innings, Pakistan pushed on and looked good during the chase. Babar Azam played a few mesmerizing shots but eventually threw away his wicket to a short ball which he top-edged straight to fine-leg, Despite looking in elegant touch, one loose shot meant his day was over. Hafeez came in and started to build a solid partnership with Imam-ul-Haq as the pitch looked flat and the Australian bowlers failed to threaten.

Just when the momentum was swinging Pakistan’s way, both Imam and Hafeez committed hara-kiri as they gifted their wickets to Australia. Imam tried to pull a short ball which would’ve been called a wide had he left it, and Hafeez hit a full-toss from part-time spinner Finch straight into the hands of deep midwicket. Soon after, Shoaib Malik and Asif Ali were also sent packing and the Pakistani ship was sinking at 160-6.

Hasan Ali came in and lifted the mood around the ground with a mercurial 32 off 15 – but the lack of wickets in hand was concerning for Pakistan. Wahab Riaz replaced Hasan Ali at the crease and started off in far less aggressive fashion, giving himself time to settle in as he preserved his wicket. After 5 overs or so, both Sarfaraz and Wahab were still at the crease and that’s when the latter took the game to the Australians. The chase was well on with the deficit reduced to 44 from 33 balls but that’s when Finch turned to his strike bowler.

Mitchell Starc came in and cleaned up the tail with some lightning quick deliveries and before you knew it, Pakistan were all-out for 266. It was a great fight from Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz and Sarfaraz and if just one of the top order batsmen had scored more prolifically, the game would’ve been in Pakistan’s hands. Some reckless batting cost them the game and the fact that these shots were played by set batsmen made it more infuriating.

Australia, on the other hand, will be relieved. Whenever it looked like they were on top, Pakistan managed to claw themselves back into the game. In the end, they had enough runs on the board and their bowlers managed to get the job done as they won the tightly-contested encounter by 41 runs. Pat Cummins was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3 for 33 and was backed up by Starc in the end.

Their bowling still has a few weaknesses, with both Nathan Coulter-Nile and Kane Richardson giving away a significant number of runs. The fact that Glenn Maxwell is Australia’s lone 5th bowler makes the attack look more vulnerable. In this case, they were fortunate that the Pakistani batsmen played a number of rash shots – and it’s certainly an area they should look to improve on.