Riding on brilliant hundreds from David Warner (163) and Mitchell Marsh (121), Australia romped to a 62-run victory against Pakistan in World Cup Cricket 2023 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in the south Indian city of Bengaluru on a breezy Friday (Oct 20) night. Chasing a challenging target of 368, Pakistan remained in the contest till the 39th over, before the wheels started coming off, courtesy of a stunning effort from Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Abdullah Shafique (64) and Imam-ul-Haq (70) started off brilliantly for the subcontinent side as Australia looked short of ideas, despite posting a mammoth total. The short boundaries allowed for proper stroke-making and the two batters had fun.
When it looked like Pakistan openers might replicate their Australian counterparts, Marcus Stoinis stepped up and delivered to break a 134-run partnership. Imam soon followed his partner as Stoinis dug in a short one, forcing the southpaw to hook one straight to Mitchell Starc at deep fine leg.
Skipper Babar Azam once again failed to capitalise on a start and fell to the guile of Zampa by smashing the ball to a diving Pat Cummins at short mid-on.
In the end, Pakistan lost their last six wickets for just 36, suggesting that the lower middle order completely crumbled under pressure. Zampa was the pick of the bowlers as he got the ball to skid on the surface and deployed the deadly googlies at regular intervals. Iftikhar and Rizwan found it the hard way when the leg-spinner pinned them in front of the sticks.
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Australia’s batting masterclass
Put into bat first, Warner and Marsh, silencing the critics, put on a sensational opening stand of 259 with both of them scoring hundreds on a pitch where the new ball seemed to be coming on beautifully.
Warner was dropped early on in the innings as debutant Mir put down a dolly. The reprieve, in hindsight, proved to be the turning point of the match as the left-hander punished the Pakistan bowlers for erring in length, even by a fraction.
Pakistan did fight back though towards the end as Shaheen Afridi shrugged off the disappointment of the powerplay overs and emerged with a five-fer. Even Haris Rauf, who was smashed for 56 runs in his first four overs, made a good comeback at the end as Australia lost 6 wickets for just 70 runs in the final 10 overs.
With the win, Australia have coasted to two consecutive victories after starting off the campaign dismally and finding themselves at the bottom of the pile. The five-time champions have now catapulted themselves to the fourth spot on the points table and find themselves right back for a spot in the knockouts.
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