Australia defeated Pakistan by 62 runs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India on Friday and made an excellent comeback in the ICC World Cup 2023 after back-to-back defeats in the first two matches against India and South Africa.
With a crucial 62-run win, the Aussies jumped to the fourth position on the ICC World Cup 2023 points table.
Here is how the points table looks like after Australia’s second win in the tournament:
The Aussies managed to restrict the Green Shirts to 305 runs after posting a colossal 368-run target courtesy of a 259-run stand from David Warner and Mitchell Marsh.
Pakistan were off to a great start as their opening duo of Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique had a 134-run partnership — the first time a Pakistani opening pair had a century stand against Australia in a World Cup match.
However, Abdullah was removed after scoring 64 runs as he got a top edge on Marcus Stoinis’ delivery. Soon after the right-handed batter lost his wicket, Imam, too, followed him to the pavilion for 70 runs.
Pakistan were 154-2 in 23.4 overs and were in dire need of a big partnership to get back in the team but their skipper Babar Azam was removed by Adam Zampa just after scoring 18 runs courtesy of an excellent catch by Pat Cummins.
The Green Shirts kept on losing wickets at regular intervals but after the arrival of Iftikhar Ahmed, it looked like Pakistan would get in the game once again as the 33-year-old started hitting boundaries.
But Adam Zampa provided the Aussies the much-needed breakthrough and removed Iftikhar and Mohammad Rizwan in back-to-back overs.
The Green Shirts were all out for 305 runs in 45.3 overs.
Batting first, Australia posted 367 runs on the scoreboard, recording the biggest total against Pakistan in the World Cup.
Warner, who was dropped on 10 by Usama Mir, and Marsh formed a 259-run stand and created history as that was Australia’s highest-ever opening stand in World Cup cricket. It was also the first time Pakistan conceded more than a 200-run partnership in World Cup cricket.
Shaheen Afridi was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan as the 23-year-old bagged five wickets, his second World Cup fifer.