Sports Desk
BANGALORE: Australia on Friday clinched their second consecutive win in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 when they registered a 62-run win over Pakistan at Bangalore’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
FALL OF WICKETS- PAKISTAN
1-134 (Abdullah Shafique, 21.1 ov), 2-154 (Imam-ul-Haq, 23.4 ov), 3-175 (Babar Azam, 26.2 ov), 4-232 (Saud Shakeel, 34.2 ov), 5-269 (Iftikhar Ahmed, 38.5 ov), 6-274 (Mohammad Rizwan, 40.5 ov), 7-277 (Usama Mir, 41.5 ov), 8-287 (Mohammad Nawaz, 42.6 ov), 9-301 (Hasan Ali, 44.5 ov), 10-305 (Shaheen Afridi, 45.3 ov)
FALL OF WICKETS- AUSTRALIA
1-259 (MR Marsh, 33.5 ov), 2-259 (GJ Maxwell, 33.6 ov), 3-284 (SPD Smith, 38.1 ov), 4-325 (DA Warner, 42.2 ov), 5-339 (JP Inglis, 44.2 ov), 6-354 (MP Stoinis, 47.1 ov), 7-360 (M Labuschagne, 48.3 ov), 8-363 (MA Starc, 49.1 ov), 9-363 (JR Hazlewood, 49.2 ov)
Pakistan won the toss and put Australia into bat but skipper Babar Azam’s hopes of taking early wickets quickly evaporated when openers David Warner (163) and Mitchell Marsh (121) went all guns blazing to put on a 259-run stand.
But the rest of Australia’s batting order collapsed with the last six wickets falling for 38 runs while Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi finished with 5-54.
In response, Pakistan’s Abdullah Shafique (64) and Imam-ul-Haq (70) laid the platform for the chase with a 134-run opening partnership but the rest of the top order failed to build on promising starts as they were bundled out for 305.
Spinner Adam Zampa was the pick of the Australia bowlers as he cleaned up the middle order to finish with figures of 4-53 to move Australia up to fourth — level with fifth-placed Pakistan on four points but with a better net run rate.
