Bengaluru, October 20
Australia beat Pakistan by 62 runs in a high-scoring World Cup group game here today to get their campaign back on track with a second straight win thanks to centuries from their opening pair of David Warner and Mitchell Marsh.
Pakistan won the toss and put Australia in to bat but skipper Babar Azam’s hopes of taking early wickets quickly evaporated when Warner (163) and Marsh (121) went all guns blazing to put on a 259-run stand.
“Once we got the pace of the wicket, we tried to set it up for the incoming batters,” Warner said. “It helps when you hit it off the middle. Marsh and I tried to bat till 35 overs and we thought we could go big in the back half,” he added.
But the rest of Australia’s batting order collapsed with the last six wickets falling for 38 runs while Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi finished with 5/54.
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.
“That was great,” Australia captain Pat Cummins said. “Pretty tough playing here but good to get a win. Proper from the openers, it set the tone and we want to take the game on like that. The key in ODIs is to carry on. You get one breakthrough and it looks tough for the next guy. Batting for long, like our openers did, was great. Zampa has been awesome. Showed his class, he’s a wicket-taker,” he added. — Reuters
