TAUNTON (England): Mohammad Amir celebrates his fifth wicket during the World Cup match against Australia on Wednesday. Amir dragged Pakistan back into the game with career-best figures of five for 30 in 10 overs, but Australia still managed to post a challenging score of 307. The target ultimately proved beyond Pakistan, who lost by 41 runs despite rearguard action from Sarfraz Ahmed and Wahab Riaz.—AFP
“I’m very disappointed,” said Sarfraz. “We lost three wickets in 15 balls and that’s why we lost. We conceded too many runs in the first 20 overs apart from Mohammad Amir. We came back and restricted them well but it was a 270-280 pitch.
“We made some runs and got starts but we’ve got to convert them and go long. If you want to win matches your top four must score runs.”
Scoreboard
AUSTRALIA:
Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR
A.J. Finch c Hafeez b Amir 82 84 6 4 97.61
D.A. Warner c Imam b Shaheen 107 111 11 1 96.39
S.P.D. Smith c Asif b Hafeez 10 13 1 0 76.92
G.J. Maxwell b Shaheen 20 10 2 1 200.00
S.E. Marsh c Malik b Amir 23 26 2 0 88.46
U.T. Khawaja c Wahab b Amir 18 16 3 0 112.50
A.T. Carey lbw b Amir 20 21 2 0 95.23
N.M. Coulter-Nile c Sarfraz b Wahab 2 3 0 0 66.66
P.J. Cummins c Sarfraz b Hasan 2 6 0 0 33.33
M.A. Starc c Malik b Amir 3 6 0 0 50.00
K.W. Richardson not out 1 1 0 0 100.00
EXTRAS (LB-10, W-6, NB-3) 19 - - - --
TOTAL (all out, 50 overs) 307 - - - --
FALL OF WKTS: 1-146 (Finch, 22.1 ov), 2-189 (Smith, 28.4 ov), 3-223 (Maxwell, 33.4 ov), 4-242 (Warner, 37.5 ov), 5-277 (Khawaja, 42.1 ov), 6-288 (Marsh, 44.3 ov), 7-299 (Coulter-Nile, 46.2 ov), 8-302 (Cummins, 47.3 ov), 10-307 (Starc, 49.6 ov).
BOWLING: Mohammad Amir 10-2-30-5 (1w); Shaheen Shah Afridi 10-0-70-2 (1nb, 1w); Hasan Ali 10-0-67-1 (1nb, 3w); Wahab Riaz 8-0-44-1 (1w); Mohammad Hafeez 7-0-60-1; Shoaib Malik 4-0-26-0 (1nb).
PAKISTAN:
Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR
Imam-ul-Haq c Carey b Cummins 53 75 7 0 70.66
Fakhar Zaman c Richardson b Cummins 0 3 0 0 0.00
Babar Azam c Richardson b Coulter-Nile 30 28 7 0 107.14
Mohammad Hafeez c Starc b Finch 46 49 3 1 93.87
Sarfraz Ahmed run out 40 48 1 0 83.33
Shoaib Malik c Carey b Cummins 0 2 0 0 0.00
Asif Ali c Carey b Richardson 5 8 0 0 62.50
Hasan Ali c Khawaja b Richardson 32 15 3 3 213.33
Wahab Riaz c Carey b Starc 45 39 2 3 115.38
Mohammad Amir b Starc 0 2 0 0 0.00
Shaheen Shah Afridi not out 1 6 0 0 16.66
EXTRAS (LB-4, W-9, NB-1) 14 - - - --
TOTAL (all out, 45.4 overs) 266 - - - --
FALL OF WKTS: 1-2 (Fakhar, 2.1 ov), 2-56 (Babar, 10.5 ov), 3-136 (Imam, 251 ov), 4-146 (Hafeez, 26.6 ov), 5-147 (Malik, 27.3 ov), 6-160 (Asif, 29.6 ov), 7-200 (Hasan, 33.5 ov), 8-264 (Wahab, 44.2 ov), 9-265 (Amir, 44.4 ov), 10-266 (Sarfraz, 45.4 ov).
BOWLING: Cummins 10-0-33-3 (1nb); Starc 9-1-43-2 (2w); Richardson 8.4-0-62-2 (2w); Coulter-Nile 9-0-53-1 (2w); Maxwell 7-0-58-0 (1w); Finch 2-0-13-1 (1w).
Result: Australia won by 41 runs.
UMPIRES: N.J. Llong (England) and R.S.A. Palliyaguruge (Sri Lanka).
TV UMPIRE: I.J. Gould (England).
MATCH REFEREE: A.J. Pycroft (Zimbabwe).
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: David Warner.
STANDINGS
(Tabulated under played, won, lost, no-result, points, net run-rate):
New Zealand 3 3 0 0 6 +2.163
Australia 4 3 1 0 6 +0.057
England 3 2 1 0 4 +1.307
India 2 2 0 0 4 +0.539
Sri Lanka 4 1 1 2 4 -1.517
West Indies 3 1 1 1 3 +2.054
Bangladesh 4 1 2 1 3 -0.714
Pakistan 4 1 2 1 3 -1.796
South Africa 4 0 3 1 1 -0.952
Afghanistan 3 0 3 0 0 -1.493
Updated after Australia vs Pakistan match on Wednesday
Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2019