The buzz surrounding a frenzied Chinnaswamy Stadium can be distinctly different. Even during a non-India game or non-IPL game involving RCB, there was enough buzz at the stadium. For about five minutes during Australia’s innings, there was a Mexican Wave. And there was also an uproar when David Warner got a ton. Even Mitchell Marsh, Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi received their fair share of support. The World Cup game on hand – Australia-Pakistan – also turned out to be full of entertainment, with 672 runs scored in 95.3 overs. Ultimately, Australia came up trumps by 62 runs.
Where did the match slip for Pakistan? It was somewhere during the first 25 overs when Australia came out all guns blazing. In the first over itself, with a royal flourish, Marsh tonked one straight down the ground off Shaheen Afridi. A couple of overs later, Warner joined the fun smashing a six off Hasan Ali. From that time, there was no looking back.
Haris Rauf, Pakistan’s fastest bowler, was thumped for 24 runs in a single over. After three overs, he had given up a whopping 47. Rauf paid the price for bowling short and wide. When he tried the short delivery, it wasn’t high enough. Usama Mir wasn’t spared either. In the 31st over, Warner reached his fourth successive ODI ton versus Pakistan. The very next ball, Marsh, the birthday boy, punched one through extra-cover and let out a roar after composing his hundred.
Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Steve Smith did fall in quick succession. Meanwhile, the DJ at the ground tried to keep up Warner’s spirits by asking the fans to cheer for him so loudly that the fans in Sydney could end up hearing the noise. Warner, however, seemed to be tiring. He did thwack Mir for a four and a six and then landed a powerful blow off Rauf before falling to the same bowler, the very next ball. The crowd gave him a standing ovation as he trudged back to the pavilion.
Rauf and Afridi then bowled with discipline and nous to help Pakistan make a mini-comeback. With the track getting scuffed up a touch, the pair found swing with the old ball. Rauf also used the surprise short delivery to good effect and extracted more height on his offerings compared to his initial spell. On the other hand, Afridi was on a hat-trick in the last over but the third ball turned out to be a wide as Australia ended up with an imposing 367.
In the chase, Pakistan were in the game perhaps until Muhammad Rizwan was dismissed by Adam Zampa. Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq shared an opening stand of 134. Rizwan, Saud Shakeel and Ifitkhar Ahmed made useful contributions, but Pakistan needed a couple of the batters to get hundreds. That it didn’t happen.
Zampa took four wickets while Marcus Stoinis hit the pitch hard and bagged the vital wickets of Shafique and Imam. Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood took four scalps between them.’
Pakistan were left to ponder the fluffed chances including a costly miss in the fifth over, which gave Warner a reprieve when he had just 10. Incidentally, Warner was again dropped in the 33rd over. Australia also dropped a couple of catches. It was just that Warner took advantage of those grassed chances and cracked a big hundred. None of the Pakistani batters could do so.