Pakistan, the home team, are back in the series after winning the 2nd ODI against Australia. They have chased the highest runs in their history to win this match. With this victory, Pakistan have won their first match after losing ten games in a row against Australia. Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam proved himself once again why he is one of the top batters in the world, scoring the highest 114 runs in this innings. Meanwhile, Imam-ul-Haq also got the century against Proteas. However, fans around the world have seen three centuries in one match.
Match Review
Like the first ODI, Pakistan’s skipper Babar Azam won the toss in the second match. He also chose to bowl first as he did the same in the 1st game. Many critics have criticized his decision as the Aussie batters haven’t troubled to play against the Pakistani pacers. Anyway, Pakistan’s pacer Shaheen Afridi hit the Aussies in the first over. He picked up the wicket of the Australian captain, Aaron Finch. The captain departed without scoring any runs.
Travis Head, who got a century in the first game, made a brilliant partnership with the new batsman, Ben McDermott. They both added 162 runs together on the scoreboard. Travis Head played a little bit more aggressively than the other one. Both Head and McDermott picked up half-centuries in this match. Unfortunately, Travis Head didn’t get the century as he departed in the 25th over after scoring 89 runs. But Ben McDermott didn’t miss the century. Before losing the wicket, he added 104 runs on the scoreboard. However, Marnus Labuschagne and Marcus Stoinis played very crucial innings at the end to boost up the score. So after 50 overs, Australia set a massive target of 349 runs for Pakistan.
Chasing the huge score, the home team started their batting innings brilliantly. They added 118 runs in the opening partnership. Then, Fakhar Zaman departed on the 19th over. But the pace of picking the runs never stopped as Imam-ul-Haq made another partnership of 121 runs with the new batsman, Babar Azam. They were too good on the pitch. Both made it easy for the remaining players to chase the rest of the runs. Babar Azam scored 114 runs, while Imamul Haq added 106 for the team. As a result, Pakistan successfully chased the target within 49 overs.