Stunning opening stand inspires Australia to victory over Pakistan

Australia v Pakistan, scorecard

Warner top-scored with a brilliant 163, and Mitchell Marsh hit an excellent 121, with the openers adding 259 runs together – the second-highest opening stand in men’s Cricket World Cup history and a record at the tournament for Australia.

But Shaheen Shah Afridi helped Pakistan get some control back in the game, finishing with a five-wicket haul to limit the total to a large but not un-chasable 367/9.

Australia’s total was temporarily at risk when Pakistan’s openers put on a big partnership of their own.

But such a huge target was always likely to be a challenge, and it was Adam Zampa and Marcus Stoinis who did much of the damage with the ball as wickets tumbled in the second half of the innings.

Victory means that Australia have recovered well from a poor start to the tournament, with Pat Cummins’ side now level on four points with Pakistan and well in the mix for one of the semi-final qualification spots.

Australia made the most of a good batting wicket in Bengaluru after being asked to bat first by Babar Azam, but were the recipients of some fortune early in the innings.

Shaheen Afridi unleashed a confident leg-before appeal against David Warner off the very first ball of the game, but couldn't convince the umpire, with the review showing that the batter had a big inside edge.

But Warner survived another more significant scare in the fifth over, when Usama Mir shelled a straightforward chance on the on-side with the opener on just 10.

Warner kicked on after his reprieve, with Haris Rauf’s first over going for 24 runs, including a spectacular six from a crouched Warner, which went deep into the stands, before Marsh finished the over with a hat-trick of boundaries.

Pakistan’s spinners could do little to halt the scoring rate, as Warner and Marsh set up a big platform. Warner reached his fifty in the 13th over, with Marsh achieving that milestone in the 15th over, and by the mid-innings stage all six Pakistan bowlers had been hit for a boundary by the duo.

The scoring rate increased yet further as the innings went into its second half, with Warner and Marsh plundering 87 runs off the next 52 balls.

But it was the returning Shaheen Shah Afridi who finally brought a breakthrough for Pakistan, getting Marsh caught at short fine leg for a 108-ball 121.

One wicket brought two, as Glenn Maxwell – promoted to number three – tried to loft the pacer off the very next ball, but could only reach Babar at mid-on.

Australia’s remarkable start had set up a terrific platform, but the middle order struggled to take advantage, with Steven Smith the next to depart for seven from nine balls.

Warner threatened to surpass his own highest ODI score as he continued to rack up the runs, but was finally undone by one of his big shots, holing out off Haris Rauf for a majestic 163 (124 balls).

Pakistan’s recovery continued apace, inspired by Rauf and Shaheen, with only Josh Inglis able to score at better than a run-a-ball in the final 12 overs.

Marcus Stoinis (21), Inglis (13), Marnus Labuschagne (8), Mitchell Starc (2) and Josh Hazlewood (0) all departed, as Pakistan’s pace duo ripped through the tail.

Shaheen twice took two in two balls across the course of the innings, finishing with 5/54 from his ten overs, while Rauf bounced back well from his disastrous first over to finish with figures of 3/83.

And while Australia’s total of 367/9 would have been a challenging one for any team to chase down, Pat Cummins’ side would have hoped to kick on yet further after that huge opening stand to completely bat Pakistan out of the game.

For a few hours, it looked like the crowd in Bengaluru were set to see a huge finish.

Pakistan’s chase got off to a super start, with openers Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq taking advantage of some wayward bowling in the first five overs, particularly from Mitchell Starc, who went for 28 off his first three.

The scoring rate slowed as Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa tightened things up, with a big chance going down off the bowling of Pat Cummins.

And the opening pair were still out there in the middle when the century partnership came up in the 17th over.

Marcus Stoinis proved the difference maker for Australia, removing Shafique for 64 with his very first delivery of the match.

Shafique’s excellent knock saw him score at better than a run-a-ball, with two maximums to his name.

And it was Stoinis again who prised out Imam-Ul-Haq for 70, caught in the deep, leaving Pakistan 154/2 approaching the midway point of their reply.

Imam’s 70 came off 71 balls, but both openers would have been disappointed not to have built on excellent starts.

With plenty of runs still to get, Pakistan turned to the trusted partnership of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan to drive them towards the death overs, and the pair started uncharacteristically quickly as they attempted to punish Australia’s fifth and sixth bowling options.

But Adam Zampa picked up the crucial wicket of captain Babar for just 18 to leave Pakistan needing another special chase from their lower middle order, with the required scoring rate climbing to almost nine-an-over with 20 overs of the chase remaining.

Pakistan still had hope of pulling off a huge chase, but Zampa's excellence disrupted their approach to the final ten overs.

First the spinner removed the dangerous Iftikhar Ahmed for 26. And then he prized out the crucial scalp of Rizwan for 46 to leave Pakistan needing something remarkable from their tail.

And Zampa had Mohammad Nawaz stumped off the very final ball of his ten-over spell, to finish with impressive figures of 4/53.

It was a day to forget for World Cup debutant Usama Mir, who followed up his dropped catch of Warner and expensive figures of 1/82 from nine overs with a three-ball duck as the chase fizzled out.

And the Australia pacers returned to clean up the tail, bowling Pakistan all out for 305 with 27 balls still remaining.

The deficit was enough to see Australia narrowly move about Pakistan in the table on net run rate, with both teams right in the mix in a packed middle of the table in the race for the qualification spots.

**Australia:**Mitchell Marsh, David Warner, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.

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**Pakistan:**Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammed Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Usama Mir.