AUS vs PAK: Pakistan's Bowlers Shine as Australia All-Out for 140 in Series Decider

Pakistan’s pace attack once again continued to trouble Australia in the last match of their three-match ODI series. The series is tied at 1-1 and in the third match, Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl. The Australian team was put under pressure when half of their team was dismissed for just 79 runs. The team eventually got bowled out for just 140 runs with more than 18 overs left in the innings.

Initially Australia put 18 runs on board in just two overs, but the Pakistan pace attack soon unleashed their skill, with youngster Naseem Shah dismissing Fraser-McGurk at just 7 runs. Aaron Hardie came to bat at number 3 and scored a few runs, but he quickly lost his wicket at the hands of Shaheen Afridi. Australia was at 54/2 after the first 10 overs of the innings, but the 21-year-old Naseem Shah changed things quickly by dismissing Josh Inglis, who was attempting a pull shot. 

Soon Matthew Short, who was batting on 22, played a poor shot and gave Haris Rauf his first wicket of the match. Things became worse for Australia as Cooper Connolly got retired hurt and didn’t return to bat for the entire innings. Glenn Maxwell got dismissed by Rauf for another duck and Australia was left 79/6 on board.

Marcus Stoinis played 25 balls, scoring just 8 runs before getting dismissed by Muhammad Hasnain. Sean Abbott and Adam Zampa added some crucial runs on the board and made the team cross hundred runs. Abbott and Zampa scored 30 and 13 runs, respectively. When the Australian team reached a total of 140, Shaheen Afridi put an end to the host’s inning by taking the last two wickets. Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi once again proved to be the star players for their team in the match, as the duo got 3-3 wickets each in the match. Pakistan is now just a few runs away to seal the match and win the three-match ODI series in Australia’s home.