Pat Cummins held his nerve with the bat and played a crucial role in guiding Australia to a two-wicket win in the first ODI against Pakistan at the MCG. The Australia skipper made an unbeaten 32 after Australia stumbled during their run-chase of 204.
It was the bowlers who set up the game for the Aussies as they knocked over Pakistan for a mere 203. Pakistan fought superbly with the ball despite Australia cruising at one stage but 203 was always going to be short.
Australia won the toss and opted to bowl first on a greenish MCG track. Mitchell Starc gave the hosts a good start as he picked up two early wickets. He had debutant Saim Ayub chopping one back onto his stumps in his second over before Abdullah Shafique got a feather to the keeper while trying to evade a short ball.
At the other end, Babar Azam started beautifully. The former Pakistan skipper seemed to be batting on a different pitch. He drove nicely and found gaps regularly. He raced to 26 off 19 balls. However, he slowed down after the powerplay and was beaten a couple of times on the outside edge.
Despite that, he looked pretty solid and was set for a big score. Pakistan’s new white-ball captain Mohammad Rizwan was struggling at the other end as he was 11 off 30 balls at one stage. The introduction of Adam Zampa brought an end to Babar’s knock. The latter misjudged the length and was bowled for 37. His last 25 balls had produced just 11 runs. Cummins then came back to dismiss Kamran Ghulam. Pakistan were in trouble at 70/4 at that stage.
Rizwan tried to get a move on and struck a couple of boundaries. He shared a 30-run stand with Salman Agha but it took eight overs before the latter was bounced out by Sean Abbott. Cummins was ringing the changes as he used as many as eight bowlers. The 8th option Marnus Labuschagne was the one to get rid of Rizwan who top-edged one and was dismissed for 44.
At 117/6, Pakistan were staring down the barrel. However, Shaheen Shah Afridi came out swinging and hit three fours along with one six before Starc knocked him over. His 24 off 19 balls gave the visitors some momentum.
That’s when Naseem Shah came out and produced an entertaining knock which propelled Pakistan past the 200-run mark. He smashed four sixes and one four in his knock of 40 and it was Cummins who wrapped up the innings with the wicket of Naseem.
Pakistan fight back after Smith-Inglis partnership
Chasing 204, Australia lost a couple of early wickets. Shaheen gave Pakistan their first breakthrough in the third over as Matt Short was out for 1. Jake Fraser-McGurk who survived a few close calls early on, holed out to mid-on in the fourth over.
At 28/2, Steve Smith and Josh Inglis got together and shared a fine 85-run stand. Smith got a flurry of boundaries and he swiftly moved to 26 off 21 balls before Inglis hit a few big blows to Naseem and Mohammad Hasnain.
The duo were motoring along nicely and just when it seemed like Australia would wrap up the game with ease, Haris Rauf produced an exhilarating spell where he took three wickets while Shaheen chipped in with one.
Rauf had Smith cutting one straight to point before Inglis holed out at deep square leg, giving Shaheen his second wicket. Rauf then picked up two wickets in two balls as both Labuschagne and Maxwell were out to short balls.
From 113/2, Australia slipped to 139/6. That soon turned into 155/7 which brought Cummins to the crease. He got going pretty quickly and kept the scoreboard ticking nicely. He first shared a 30-run stand with Sean Abbott before the latter was run out. Starc joined his captain in the middle with 19 runs to get. However, it was Cummins who did the bulk of the scoring and completed the chase.
BRIEF SCORES: Pakistan 203 (Mohammad Rizwan 44, Naseem Shah 40, Babar Azam 37, Mitchell Starc 3/33, Pat Cummins 2/39) lost to Australia 204/8 (Josh Inglis 49, Steve Smith 44, Pat Cummins 32*, Haris Rauf 3/67, Shaheen Shah Afridi 2/43) by two wickets.
