Haris Rauf ripped through Australia’s middle order for second consecutive game, and this time it wasn’t in vain as a sparkling innings from Saim Ayub led Pakistan’s charge to a series-levelling nine-wicket victory at the Adelaide Oval with a mammoth 23.3 overs to spare.
This was a complete hammering of the ODI World Champions. After his hair-raising spell in Melbourne, Rauf ran through the hosts’ batting – his delivery to remove Marnus Labuschagne was particularly superb – to finish with the second five-wicket haul of his ODI career. Then, after an initially cautious start to the chase by Ayub and Abdullah Shafique, the former blossomed into an innings of spectacular strokes, not least a pick-up flick off Mitchell Starc that went into the stands.
Ayub had made just 7 from 27 balls when he punched away a square drive against Josh Hazlewood and from there he was away. He magnificently deposited Pat Cummins and then Starc into the crowd before slog sweeping another off Adam Zampa’s third delivery. Given a life on 47 when Zampa spilled a chance at deep point, his fifty came from 52 balls and a maiden century was on offer before he sliced to short third with job all-but done to end a rollicking opening stand of 137.
Pakistan’s win, sealed when Babar Azam pulled Zampa for six, sets up a series decider in Perth on Sunday against what will be an Australia side lacking their Test players who won’t travel in order to prepare for the Tests against India. Australia will be captained for the first time by Josh Inglis.
Steven Smith’s 35 was the top score in a poor batting display on a pitch that had a good covering of grass but didn’t warrant such a collapse, as Pakistan’s run chase later confirmed, with Australia falling from 79 for 2 to 163 all out. By the end of it, Rauf had figures of 17-0-96-8 across two innings, his pace continuing to cause uncertainty in the footwork of several of Australia’s batters.
Four of Rauf’s wickets came with the help of catches by captain Mohammad Rizwan who equaled the record for the most dismissals by a wicketkeeper in an ODI (six) although a late dropped chance meant the standalone record slipped through his fingers.
Given the small target there was no run-rate pressure on Pakistan and the openers played sensibly against the new balls which continued to nibble around. They were aided by a ball from Starc which climbed away for five wides and four overthrows when Jake Fraser-McGurk missed a shy that would have run out Shafique.
As Ayub blazed away Shafique watched on, but later joined the fun with a swept six off Zampa and a beautiful pull against Hazlewood on the way to a 57-ball fifty. Australia’s ODI big four had no response.
After being put into bat, their new-look opening pair had again been unconvincing. Fraser-McGurk and Matt Short each had the chance to defend their style in the lead-up to Adelaide, talking of the backing they have from the coaches to be ultra-aggressive, but they were in the pavilion inside seven overs.
The initial signs from Fraser-McGurk had been promising in the second over when he cracked three boundaries, including one particularly eye-catching back-foot cover drive, but he was pinned lbw by Shaheen Shah Afridi as he looked to drive a full delivery. Short should have fallen on 8 when Shaheen spilt a comfortable catch on the deep-square-leg rope, but it wasn’t overly costly for Pakistan. Shaheen had a touch of fortune in making amends when Short cut a wide delivery to cover where Babar held a sharp catch.
Australia’s early tempo continued to be brisk as Smith again looked in good touch, including a pulled six off Mohammad Hasnain, although he was fortunate to escape on 14 when a cut shot against Rauf burst through the hands of Saim Ayub at point.
Rauf, though, wasn’t to be denied for long. His first wicket wasn’t a classic as Josh Inglis got a glove on a pull down the leg side, but after that he was very classy. Labuschagne received a perfect Test-like delivery which straightened from around off stump, forced him to play, and took the edge to Rizwan.
Aaron Hardie fell in similar fashion although he was playing forward to a fuller delivery and the last of Australia’s frontline batters departed when Glenn Maxwell, after one reverse sweep for six off Ayub, dragged on an attempted pull.
Between Rauf’s incisions, Hasnain claimed the key wicket of Smith who he was confident had been out the ball before he departed. Smith shuffled across his crease and was mighty close to being lbw – the DRS showing it to be umpire’s call while hitting a decent chunk of leg stump – but next ball Smith got a top edge slashing at a short, wide delivery.
Naseem Shah claimed his first wicket when he found Starc’s outside edge and Rauf’s fifth arrived with a top edge from Cummins.
