By Brian Murgatroyd
SHARJAH, Aug 29 – Australia’s fast bowlers, led by man of
the match Mitchell Starc, narrowly outshone Pakistan’s spinners
as Michael Clarke’s side edged to a four-wicket win in the
opening one-day international of their three-match series in
Sharjah.
Starc (5-42) and James Pattinson (3-19) were the chief
wreckers as Pakistan were bowled out for 198 in the 46th over.
Although Shahid Afridi (1-37), Saeed Ajmal (3-30) and
Mohammed Hafeez (2-29) threatened to strangle the Australian
reply, a calm 66 from Clarke and then crucial contributions from
George Bailey (57 not out) and Glenn Maxwell (38) meant they
eased to victory with 10 balls to spare.
“We were at least 30 runs short in our total,” Pakistan
captain Misbah-ul-Haq told reporters after the match.
“We’ve played enough cricket (to know what to do) and the
most important thing is to bat 50 overs. With our bowling
line-up a total of 230 or 240 would have been defendable.
“Our bowlers tried hard and its okay that we were fighting
so well but you just have to blame the batting.”
Only Asad Shafiq (56) and Umar Akmal (52) passed 30 for
Pakistan as Starc and Pattinson ran through their lineup.
Shafiq faced 77 balls and hit two fours and two sixes before
he gave himself room to hit through the offside and was bowled
by Starc. Umar, who also hit two four and two sixes, was also
dismissed by Starc when he hit the ball straight to cover.
Starc also had the dangerous Afridi caught for a duck, as
Pakistan squandered their batting powerplay.
Starc returned his best one day international figures
surpassing his previous best of 4-27 against Sri Lanka in
Brisbane in Nov. 2010.
Pattinson had put the pressure on the top of the Pakistani
order, removing Hafeez (four) and Azhar Ali (five) to leave them
28 for two in the seventh over, from which they never recovered.
“We bowled to our plans really well,” said Starc. “You can
say they played poor shots but we kept it simple, stuck to our
game plans and took wickets in the powerplays.”
Pakistan had put early pressure on Australia’s run chase
with openers David Warner (five) and Matthew Wade (10) dismissed
following wild swings across the line, before Michael (five) and
David Hussey (three) were out in quick succession to Saeed
Ajmal.
Clarke, however, steadied the innings, patiently working the
spinners around and combined with Bailey for 54 runs in 16 overs
before he was trapped in front by Mohammad Hafeez.
Maxwell and Bailey then took Australia to the brink of
victory adding 63 in 12 overs before Maxwell missed a reverse
sweep and fell lbw to become Ajmal’s third wicket.
The match finished at 2am (2200 GMT) on Wednesday having
started at 6pm on Tuesday, to avoid the match taking place
during the heat of the day, though conditions were still
oppressive with the temperature not dipping below 30 Celsius.
(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
