Pakistan registered a famous series win as Mohammad Rizwan began his full-time white-ball captaincy stint on a high note in a three-match series against Australia. The Men in Green handed Australia a 2-1 defeat at the home of the reigning ODI World Champions, with bowlers doing wonders in the series.
With several stars missing for the series decider in Perth due to the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series, the Aussies were wrapped for just 140 in the first innings. Pakistan hunted down the total easily in 26.5 overs with eight wickets in hand to hand Australia their first-ever home series defeat in the last five years.
Meanwhile, Australia have hit a record low in the series. For the first-ever time, no Aussie batter managed to score a fifty in a men's ODI series in their history. Josh Inglis came closest to overturning this record when he made 49 in the first game in Melbourne. Steven Smith had made 44 in that match.
In the second game, Smith topped the scoring charts for the hosts as he scored 35. Meanwhile, Sean Abbott was the leading run scorer for the hosts in the decider as he made 30 from No.8 spot.?
The Aussie batting line-up has failed in all three games. They could have well lost the first match too had not for a special Pat Cummins effort when he made 32 to take Australia over the line in the run-chase of 204 with only two wickets in hand.?
The hosts lost more than half of their side near the halfway stage in all the games, highlighting the collapse of the top-order batters. They were six down in 20.2 overs in the first match, then lost their six wickets in 25.2 overs in the second and then had played only 20.3 overs during the time of the loss of the sixth wicket in the third one.?
Former England captain Michael Vaughan also came hard on the Aussie batters. "Six for 91 is just not good enough for players who are trying to prove their worth at this level. Pakistan have been tremendous. You go back to the first game in Melbourne, it took a brilliant innings from the captain Pat Cummins to get Australia over the line," Vaughan said on Fox Cricket.
"Let’s be honest, for three games I don’t remember seeing an Australian batting lineup look so exposed. Three games on the trot against a bit of pace, a bit of movement – it’s not express, it’s not rapid. But they’ve been completely exposed.
"I’m just looking at the whole series, the Australian batting lineup have been six down at the MCG inside the 21st over, six down at the Adelaide Oval inside the 26th over. And six down here inside the 21st over again.
"I just think they are better than that. They are a good team; they’ve got so much quality. You’ve got to remember they are world champions – the best team in the world," he added.
