David Warner smashed a superb 163 runs to inspire Australia to a 62-run victory over Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.
Warner and Mitchell Marsh, who made 121, put together a huge stand of 259 runs before Pakistan came back.
The Aussies could only score 367-9 with the help of fast bowler Shaheen Afridi, who took 5-54.
Imam-ul-Haq (70) and Abdullah Shafique (64), who came in to bat, got Pakistan off to a good start. But Australia won the game when Mohammad Rizwan was bowled out for 46 by Adam Zampa.
Pakistan had already tried to beat Sri Lanka’s World Cup record score of 345 earlier in the tournament, but they were unable to do so here.
There haven’t been many close games in this World Cup, but this one almost went all the way to the wire before Pakistan’s batting broke down.
The first stand of 134 runs from Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq set the stage, but both men fell to Marcus Stoinis’s medium pace (2-40).
Australia’s captain, Pat Cummins, made up for an earlier drop by making a great catch to get rid of his opponent, Babar Azam (18). Rizwan was then out when the impressive Zampa caught him right in front of the bowler, which pretty much ended the game as a contest.
Warner and Marsh had struck early on with a lot of energy that Australia hadn’t shown much of in the tournament so far.
Warner’s knock had a few flaws—he was dropped twice, on 10 and 105—but he and Marsh made the most of the good conditions for batting.
With their win, Australia moved up to fourth in the table, tied with Pakistan on points but ahead of them in net run-rate.
In their first three games, Australia had a rough start to the tournament. They were bowled out for 199 runs against India and 177 runs against South Africa. Against Sri Lanka, they had to nervously chase down 210 runs.
When Marsh hit the first ball from Afridi back over his head and into the stands for six, it showed that he was ready to break free of those weak attempts.
Marsh was able to get to places down the ground and through the covers thanks to his long levers. His style, which was full of waspish cuts and wristy flicks, went well with Warner’s rough style, which made it hard for Pakistan’s attack to find consistent lengths.
Warner hit a six that really stood out. He hit the roof of the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium with a brave paddled flick that went down on his knee and off Haris Rauf. It was 98 metres long, which made it the second-biggest six in the tournament.
Both players hit hundreds in a row of balls from Mohammad Nawaz. Warner did it off 85 balls, and Marsh did it at exactly one run per ball.
Australia had a great start thanks to a huge partnership at the first wicket. They were just one run away from matching their all-time high score for any wicket at a World Cup.
But after that, their middle-order batters didn’t do much better. They didn’t seem to know how to best approach the task at the end of the innings, when they lost six wickets for 38 runs.
Only Stoinis (21) and Josh Inglis (13) scored more than 10 points. Glenn Maxwell (0), Steve Smith (7), and Marnus Labuschagne (8) all failed to score.
Australia had the chance to score more than 400 runs, but they fell well short and sent doubts about the balance and form of their batting unit.
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