Ruthless Pakistan outclass Australia by nine wickets to clinch ODI series 2-1

LAHORE: It was a ruthless and clinical performance. It was all Pakistan. Skipper Babar Azam and his men outclassed Australia by nine wickets in the third and last one-day international to win the three-match series 2-1 at the picturesque Gaddafi Stadium here on Saturday evening. The elusive win came after Pakistan lost six consecutive ODI series to Australia — and the preceding three-match Test series 1-0 last month. Australia will end the tour — their first to Pakistan in 24 years — with a single T20I on Tuesday, also in Lahore. Chasing not that difficult victory target of 211, Pakistan raced home for the loss of juts one scalp with 73 balls to spare. Pakistan exposed the shortcomings of a depleted Australian side by overwhelming them in a truly professional manner. Babar smashed his second successive ton and Imamul Haq an impressive half century to anchor Pakistan’s first series win over Australia since 2002. Babar, dropped by Travis Head off Jason Behrendorff on one, took full advantage of the reprieve to complete his 16th ODI hundred, hitting 12 boundaries in his 115-ball 105 not out. Unbeaten Imam followed his own back-to-back hundreds with a polished 89 for his 11th ODI half century. He cracked six boundaries and a six, and finished the series with 298 runs. Imam and Babar shared an unbroken 190-run stand for the second wicket after opener Fakhar Zaman fell to Nathan Ellis for 17 — Australia’s only success in the innings. “When you lose the first game then your players need confidence and once they were given that they came back strongly and did well,” said Babar. “Credit to them for this series win,” he added.

After losing the first ODI by 88 runs, Pakistan came back strongly in the second after completing their highest successful run chase in ODIs when they chased down a mammoth target of 349 to down Australia by six wickets to level the series 1-1 on Thursday. Centuries from Babar (114) and opener Imam (106) allowed the hosts to reach the total on a pitch that aided batting. It is pertinent to mention that both Pakistan and Australia are eying qualification for the ICC World Cup in India, which is only 18 months away. The series is part of the 13-team ODI Super League in which every match carries 10 points, with the top seven qualifying automatically for the World Cup next year. Australia are fourth and Pakistan 8th in the ODI World Cup Super League points table. Despite losing the series, Australia still have a commanding record against Pakistan in ODIs with 69 wins from 104 completed matches. On their last tour of Pakistan in 1998, Australia wrapped up a clean sweep of the three-match ODI series with a six-wicket victory in Lahore to complete the then second-highest successful chase in history. Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist scored centuries to lead Australia’s chase down of 316 with seven balls to spare. Australian skipper Aaron Finch rued the lack of runs. “We didn’t get enough runs,” said Finch. “When you go three down in the first few overs, it’s always going to be hard to get a big total.”

Hosts’ brilliant bowling restrict visitors: Earlier, some superb and brilliant bowling helped Pakistan dismiss Australia for just 210 runs. Fast bowlers Haris Rauf (3-39), Mohammad Wasim (3-40) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (2-40) kept the pressure from the start as Australia were bowled out in 41.5 overs. Alex Carey top-scored with a gritty 61-ball 56 while Sean Abbott made a 40-ball 49 in a dismal batting show by the visitors. Sent in to bat for a third successive time by Pakistan skipper Babar, Australia lost in-form Travis Head with the first ball of the match, from Shaheen.

Out-of-form skipper Aaron Finch fell in the next over from Rauf, trapped leg-before for a second time in a row, as Australia lost both openers without a run on the board. Rauf made it 3-6 when Marnus Labuschagne edged one to slip for Iftikhar Ahmed to take a simple catch. Ben McDermott (36) and Marcus Stoinis (19) took the score to 59 when the latter chipped spinner Zahid Mahmood to Imamul Haq, who took a good diving catch. McDermott, who smashed a maiden ODI century in the second game, was trapped leg-before by Wasim for 36 as Australia lost half their side for just 67 by the 16th over. Carey and Cameron Green (34) added an invaluable 81 runs for the sixth wicket off 95 balls, but Wasim came for his second spell to bowl Green in the 32nd over.

Carey’s resistance finally ended when he holed out to spinner Iftikhar after hitting six boundaries and a six. Abbott, who also hit six boundaries and a six, made sure Australia got past 200 during a last-wicket stand of 44 runs before falling to Rauf.