Rauf and Ayub Shine as Pakistan Claim Maiden ODI Victory in Australia Since 2017
Pakistan 169 for 1 (Ayub 82, Shafique 64*, Zampa 1-44) beat Australia 163 (Smith 35, Rauf 5-29, Afridi 3-26) by nine wickets
Haris Rauf ripped through Australia’s middle order for the second game in a row and this time Pakistan made it count. Superbly, Saim Ayub engineered a nine-wicket victory for Pakistan here at the Adelaide Oval – by 23.3 overs.
This was a complete domination by the ODI World Champions as Rauf’s bowling dismantled the Australian lineup, marked by a stunning delivery that cast out Marnus Labuschagne for just two runs, in the process earning him his second five-wicket haul in ODIs.
Then after a cautious start by Ayub and Abdullah Shafique, Ayub just went for some strong shots, one of which was huge flick off Mitchell Starc into the stands.
Ayub started conservatively, scoring only 7 runs from 27 balls before he hit a square drive off Josh Hazlewood, and thereafter ran a string of incredible shots -smashing Pat Cummins and Starc into the crowd, then followed that up with a big sweep against Adam Zampa. He reached his fifty in 52 balls after a missed catch on 47. A hundred seemed to be within reach at one point as he was dismissed at 137, with Pakistan almost done with their chase. With 141 balls remaining, this was Australia’s second-largest margin of defeat in home ODIs.
Pakistan won the match as Babar Azam hit the six off Zampa. Now, they will win victory in the decider to be played against Australia on Sunday in Perth. Some Test players will miss as they will not fly along with the team due to preparation of the home series against India. The team will be led by Josh Inglis for the first time.
Australia found batting troublesome and could manage to score only 163 runs after falling from 79 for 2. Steven Smith’s 35 was the highest on a pitch that didn’t seem too challenging, as Pakistan smooth chase showed. Haris Rauf finished with brilliant figures across two games, making Australian batters find it troublesome with fast bowling.
Four of Rauf’s wickets came from catches by wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, who matched the ODI record for most dismissals by a keeper (six), although he missed a chance to set a new record.
With a small target, Pakistan’s openers played carefully against the new ball, which moved around a bit. They were helped by five wides from Starc and four overthrows when a throw at the stumps missed Shafique.
Ayub smote big shots as Shafique took his time but then came together to strike a six off Zampa and pull Hazlewood for a boundary en route to a swift fifty. The Australian ODI bowling couldn’t restrain Pakistan.
Opening pair, Fraser-McGurk and Matt Short had boasted that they would play aggressively; they were gone in the first seven overs.
Fraser-McGurk started well, hitting three boundaries within the second over, one of which was a great cover drive. However, he soon fell into the trap of Afridi who gets him lbw, trying to drive a full ball. Short had an evasive moment on 8 when Shaheen dropped a catch, but he got out soon after cutting a wide ball to Babar at cover, who took a sharp catch.
In case of Australia, Smith came in and was looking at his best, even dispatching Hasnain out of the park. More luck smiled on him, as Ayub dropped a shot off Rauf down the leg side. Thereupon, Rauf dismissed the wicket of Inglis, who gloved pull down the leg side, and then bowled with one perfect delivery to get out Labuschagne, just few overs later, Hardie was dismissed with a very similar ball.
A third big scalp for Rauf came when Maxwell attempted a reverse sweep for six but got out soon after, dragging a pull onto his stumps. Hasnain chipped in by getting Smith, who was caught after almost being given lbw.
Naseem Shah joined in by dismissing Starc and Rauf completed his five-wicket haul when Cummins top-edged a catch, wrapping up Australia’s innings.
