Aussie Bowlers with Strong Showing
It was a great atmosphere at the MCG for the first of three ODI’s between Australia and Pakistan yesterday.
Australia won the toss and elected to bowl first to begin the match as Mitchell Starc took to the middle of the pitch.
It was a brilliant first over for Starc as he bowled a maiden. When he returned in the third over, he claimed the first wicket for Australia as he bowled Saim Ayub leaving Pakistan at just 3-1.
From there, Starc and Pat Cummins went back and forth, trading overs and doing well to keep Pakistan at bay. In the sixth over it was again Starc who did the damage as he took another wicket to push Pakistan to 24-2.
Pakistan then went on a little run as they slowly worked up their score for the next ten overs or so.
The 17th over was the first for Aussie spinner Adam Zampa and he quickly made his presence felt taking the wickets of Babar Azam to leave Pakistan at 63-3.
Cummins then joined the party and found his first wicket in the 18th over as he forced Kamran Ghulam to chip the ball into the hands of Josh Inglis for 70-4.
It wasn’t for another ten overs that Australia would find their next wicket though they did well to keep Pakistan from attacking too aggressively.
It was Sean Abbott who would take the next wicket as he got Salman Ali Agha to pop one to midwicket where Matt Short was. This left Pakistan at a troubling 101-5.
The Australian’s were able to take two more wickets before the 40th over as Pakistan sat at just 159-7 with ten overs remaining.
Once the 43rd over had ended, Pakistan was down to their last wicket and sat on 183. They made a respectable last wicket stand and pushed their total to 203 before their final wicket fell in the 46th over.
Middle-Order Collapse provides Scare
So, Australia’s batsmen knew what they had to do. A 204-target score was thought to be very achievable and the Aussie’s looked to be on pace early.
Matt Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk started off the batting overs for Australia strongly as they took less than two innings to get to 18 runs. Unfortunately, it was at this point that they gave up their first wicket as Short was caught out.
Not long after in the third over Fraser-McGurk was also caught out as the openers were gone and Australia sat at 28-2.
It was then up to Steve Smith and Josh Inglis to get Australia back on track and they did so brilliantly. They worked together for 13 overs, taking Australia to 113 by the time Smith was finally caught out.
A few overs later Inglis fell as well as Australia sat on 139-4. Australia was in a good spot, but then it all changed in in just a few overs. Suddenly both Marnus Labuschagne and Glenn Maxwell were caught out in the 20th over and Australia was at 139-6.
Then five overs later Aaron Hardie was bowled and Australia was in trouble at 155-7.
Then came Captain Pat Cummins to patch the sinking ship and lead his team to victory. Cummins went for 32 not out from 31 balls, leading his side to 204-8 after Sean Abbott had lost his wickets three overs earlier.
With this brilliant showing, Australia took the win and Pat Cummins received heaps of deserved praise on social media.
Australia was able to come away with an opening ODI win at the MCG yesterday as they took down Pakistan. Despite a big scare in the middle of the order Australia looked primed to come away with the win throughout nearly the whole matchup.
