Australia and Pakistan faced each other in the 17th match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in Taunton on Wednesday (June 12).
Set into bat first, Australia got off to a brilliant start, courtesy skipper Aaron Finch and David Warner taking the Pakistani bowlers to the cleaners. The duo put up 146 runs for the opening wicket in just 22 overs. Mohammad Amir drew the first blood for Pakistan by dismissing Finch on 82 off 84 balls.
Unperturbed his opening partner’s dismissal, Warner continued his dominance. The southpaw notched up his 14th ODI ton and first in this year’s World Cup. Shaheen Afridi removed him in the 38th over for 107 off 111 balls (11 fours and 1 six).
Meanwhile, other Australia batsmen failed to stepped up to the plate. Steven Smith (10), Glenn Maxwell (20), Shaun Marsh (23) and Usman Khawaja (18) had a disappointing outing with the bat as the Pakistani bowler reduced the Aussies to 288/6.
In the death overs, Pakistani pacers bowled magnificently well. They didn’t allow Australia’s lower-order to add valuable runs on the board. Amir was the stand-out bowler, claiming 5 wickets for 30 runs in his 10 overs. Shaheen Afridi chipped in with two wickets while Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali and Mohammad Hafeez scalped one wicket each as Pakistan eventually bundled out Australia for 307 in 49 overs.
Cricket experts on Twitter were fascinated to see the dominance of Australian openers and the bounce back from Pakistani bowlers led by Mohammad Amir.
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