After breaking the cycle of defeat, Pakistan has started to return to the winning streak. Pakistan broke the cycle of defeat by winning the series against England at home. After that, Mohammad Rizwan’s team lost to Australia by 2 wickets in the first ODI of the three-match series. In the second match, Pakistan returned to a 1-1 tie by defeating the Aussies by a huge margin of 9 wickets.
Pakistan won the series by defeating Australia by 8 wickets in the final match of the series on Sunday. At the same time, they won the ODI series after 22 years in Australia.
Before this, Pakistan won the last bilateral series between the two teams on Australian soil in 2002. They had to wait 22 years to win another series in the format. But the series started in Melbourne with Ajid winning by 2 wickets. Rizwan-Babar confirmed the series with two consecutive wins from behind.
Babar-Rizwan at the crease raised two hands for nothing after securing the win with a long-on ball from Adam Jumper. Winning the series after a long time seems to have saved them from many things. After failures in the last ODI and T20 World Cups, the Test series at home to Bangladesh created a mountain of pressure. Babar chose the Australia series in that hill.
The visitors won the toss and fielded first at the Optus Stadium in Perth. Despite being a series-deciding match, Australia made five changes to the XI. Veteran stars Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, captain Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc did not play in the match. As a result, the lack of experience in the host camp led by Josh English was well felt. Notable runs (30) were scored only by Sean Abbott batting at number eight. Meanwhile, Cooper Conley left the field with a hand injury, and did not return.
Opener Mathew Short scored 22 runs. But no one could accompany him from the beginning. Naseem Shah bowled Jack Fraser-McGurk (7) and Josh Inglis (7) and Shaheen Afridi sent off Aaron Hardy (12). The farewell procession began to grow after the team was dismissed by short Haris Rauf for 72 runs. Glenn Maxwell (0) and Marcus Stoinis (8) could not manage the team’s disaster. As a result, Australia lost 9 wickets for 140 runs in 31.5 overs. Shaheen-Naseem took 3 wickets each for Pakistan.
Chasing a small target, the two Pakistani openers Saim Ayyub and Abdullah Shafiq started looking like the second ODI. They scored 84 runs in the opening pair. Both returned in quick succession, in the same over from Lance Morris. Saim scored 42 and Shafiq scored 37 runs. Then Babar-Rizwan combined 58 runs to ensure the victory of the visitors. Babar left the field unbeaten on 28 and Rizwan 30 runs.
(Dhaka Times/10 November/NBW)
Source: www.dhakatimes24.com
