Pakistan express pacer Shaheen Afridi scalped a five-wicket haul in the ongoing AUS vs PAK World Cup match in Bengaluru. Despite his efforts with the ball, Australia went on to pile-up 367 runs on the board. To note, this was Shaheen Afridi’s second fifer in the World Cup event.
Pakistan opted to bowl first
Earlier in the match, Pakistan won the toss and opted to bowl first, making one change as they brought in Usama Mir for their vice-captain Shadab Khan. Shaheen Afridi’s greed ended up as a headache for Babar Azam as Pakistan lost a review right in the first ball of the match. A couple of overs later, the World Cup debutant Usama dropped a dolly of David Warner at mid-on and what happened after it was a time period to forget for the Asian nation.
Both Warner and Mitchell Marsh tore apart the Pakistani bowling attack into pieces, adding 259 for the opening wicket and scoring cracking centuries. Marsh hammered 121 off 108 balls, hitting 10 fours and 9 sixes, while Davey was outrageous with his knock of 163 from 124 balls, smacking 14 fours and 9 maximums.
As mentioned above, Shaheen Afridi picked his second World Cup fifer and was unbelievable with his spell of 10-1-54-5! Haris Rauf was taken to the cleaners in his initial spell and conceded 59 runs in his first 4 overs before making a strong comeback in the death overs, ending his day with figures of 8-0-83-3. Usama Mir dismissed Steven Smith but went for 82 runs in his 9 overs. Pakistan spinners- Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz kept a lid on the run-flow in the middle phase.