ICC Cricket WorldCup: Pakistan VS Australia as it happened
First Innings
The two teams who have had a mixed start to the world cup campaign faced off at Taunton with weather conditions once again being one of the major factors driving the toss results.
Sarfaraz Ahmed won the toss and as predicted elected to bowl first. Finch and his men gained the momentum from the start as the openers David Warner and Aaron Finch aggressively charged. Australia was cruising with a run rate of 6+ as Shaheen Afridi and Hassan Ali along with spinner Muhammad Hafeez were targeted. Amir, however, restrained the openers as he conceded just 16 of his first 6 overs. Meanwhile, Wahab too came in and with his swing once again stopped the runs from the other end conceding off 21 in first 6 overs. Whereas Hassan Ali in 6 overs conceded 43 compared to Shaheen Afridi 45 in first 6 overs with Hafeez awarding 32 in just 3 overs as Australia edged Pakistan in the opening two phases.
David Warner after an imperceptible inning against India started off lively hitting boundaries. Finch too from the other end never seemed to stop as the two openers carried the team to a tremendous 146 runs partnership after Finch finally falling to Amir. Nevertheless, Pakistan with their poor fielding had already dropped a couple of catches before Finch’s wicket. Steve Smith joined David Warner to commence a new partnership with Warner firing himself to a 100 after almost a year after coming back from the ban. Meanwhile, Hafeez made a fine comeback as Steve Smith mistimed slog led to the end of his innings. Glenn Maxwell came at a surprising 4th spot over Usman Khawaja but could never inspire fine innings as Shaheen Afridi managed to bowl him out through a waist heightened delivery. Warner felt off after 37.5 overs. Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh felt prey to M.Amir who took his 3rd wicket almost dismissing the whole batting line-up. The keeper, Alex Carey too was dismissed by Amir who grabbed his 4th wicket of the game. Nathan Coulter Nile along with his partners Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc were dismissed by Wahab, Hassan and Amir as Australia bowled all out for 307.
Second Innings.
Pakistan has had to chase a target of 307 runs in 50 overs. Pat Cummins and Starc commenced the attack for the Australians as Fakhar Zaman after playing a lofted shot off Cummins was dismissed for a duck. Imam and Babar drove the innings further with Babar showing some World Class textbook shots and was in fine form hitting 7 fours in his 30 of 28 balls. However, after failing to deal with a bouncer was caught off by the 3rd men. Hafeez and Imam then played a decent inning. However, Imam failing to rotate the run rate increasing further pressure and was later dismissed after wanting to hook Pat Cummins bouncer and ended up giving it to the wicketkeeper.
Hafeez was joined by the Captain Sarfaraz Ahmed as both looking to drive Pakistan out of the slump. However, Hafeez was caught out at boundary by stars on a captain’s delivery from Aaron Finch. Hafeez Dismissal led to a series of falling wickets for Pakistan as both Asif Ali and Shoaib Malik fall out in a couple of overs. Hence, an aggressive calendar in Hassan Ali joined Sarfaraz in an attempt to rejuvenate the innings. Hassan Ali provided through a hattrick of fours and sixes but was caught out at Richardson’s delivery. Wahab Riaz later joined the captain Sarfaraz Ahmed and both continued to play with patience resurging and inducing a hope of a comeback. Just when Pakistan was looking to be in the game Wahab fell off to Starc after a review was favored towards the Aussies. The Pakistan Cricket Team fell off quickly getting dismissed for just 266 losing by a margin of 41 runs
Key Points
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