Australia’s Bats go Completely Cold
It was a nice and sunny day out at the Adelaide Oval for the second of three ODI’s between Australia and Pakistan. Fans filled into the stadium and looked excited to see what they expected to be an Australian victory.
What they got was anything but that as the match quickly got out of hand.
Pakistan won the toss and elected to send Australia to bat first. Unchanged from the opener, it was Matthew Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk who would be taking the first swings. The duo got off to a good start scoring eight in their opening over followed by 12 in the second to sit at 20-0.
Fraser-McGurk was then fooled by a Shaheen Shah Afridi bowl in the third over to leave Australia at 21-1. Steve Smith would then join Short in the middle and the two would again have a couple solid overs but couldn’t string together a sizable run. The duo worked up to 41 runs before Short was caught out by Babar Azam.
Josh Inglis and Smith then had Australia’s most successful partnership of the day but they weren’t able to achieve sustained success by building over after over. They got to 78 runs by the end of the 13th over but when Inglis was caught out in over 14, the flood gates opened.
Marnus Labuschagne came in and quickly headed back the way he came with just six runs and Australia at 87-4. Australia’s top batsmen on the day Steve Smith was the next to fall leaving the team at 101-5 with the back of the order remaining.
Aaron Hardie and Glenn Maxwell did a decent job together but were still only able to take their score to 121 before Hardie was caught out. Maxwell was bowled not long after for Pakistan’s seventh wicket and right after he fell, Mitchell Starc was caught out after putting through just one run.
Pat Cummins was unable to re-enact his super effort from the first ODI as he was caught out with just 13 runs before Adam Zampa was the final man to fall despite a solid effort of 18 runs.
The Australian batsmen left the field with a meager 163 on the board as the bowlers had their work cut out for them.
Bowler’s Barely Make a Dent in the Pakistani Order
Knowing Pakistan was chasing just 163, the Australian bowlers had to be aggressive from the onset and in a role they typically excel in, they were unable to make magic happen in Adelaide.
They didn’t start off poorly, in fact their opening ten overs were largely filled with defensive swings from the Pakistani duo of Saim Ayub and Abdullah Shafique. The two men protected their wickets however and slowly wore down the likes of Starc, Hazlewood, and Cummins.
After a big eleventh over Pakistan sat at 58-0 and didn’t slow down from there. They tacked on 14 in the following over and Ayub had a half century by the end of the 15th. By the 20th over, the openers sat at 137-0 and the match was effectively over.
Australia finally found a wicket as Ayub was caught out by Josh Hazlewood but it was the only wicket they would take as Shafique and Babar Azam calmly took Pakistan to the finish line with a six at the end to push them to 169-1 for the nine wicket victory.
It was a tough day for Australian cricketers and fans alike at the Adelaide Oval. Australia was embarrassed on home soil as they were destroyed by nine wickets by Pakistan who have now beaten them for just the fourth time in their last 22 ODI matches.
