Electric spells from Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa have helped Australia defend 367 against Pakistan
Match Report:
ScorecardStoinis, Zampa come up clutch to down Pakistan
Marcus Stoinis has delivered his first significant impact at the World Cup with a game-changing spell to sink Pakistan by 62 runs in Hyderabad and even Australia's record at 2-2.
Centuries to David Warner and Mitch Marsh had put Australia in a position of dominance at the halfway mark, but after the five-time champions conceded a third-straight century opening stand, their 9-367 looked within Pakistan's reach.
Enter Stoinis, who up until the 22nd over of Australia's fourth match had sent down just four overs for the tournament.
He struck with his first ball as Abdullah Shafique (64) charged at a short ball but only succeeded in spooning a catch to Glenn Maxwell at midwicket.
The Western Australian allrounder screamed "come on" as he clenched his fists and puffed his chest to rally his teammates, and 10 deliveries later he had cause to do so again as Shafique's opening partner Imam-ul-Haq also perished to Stoinis (2-40).
The left-hander picked out deep third on 70 where Mitchell Starc took an excellent low catch diving to his left. It had been Imam's fifth successive innings of more than 50 against Australia in ODIs, which included scores of 103, 106 and 89no in March last year.
A hobbled Adam Zampa (4-53) struck next to remove the word's top-ranked ODI batter Babar Azam for 18 and delivered the knockout punch when he had Mohammad Rizwan trapped in front on 46.
Again battling back spasms in the lead up to Friday's match, Zampa was unable to bend over to stop a ball hit straight back at him prior to dismissing Babar, conceding a single to Rizwan as the ball ricocheted off his left foot to the vacant midwicket region.
But the very next delivery Babar picked out Cummins at midwicket who completed a stunning diving catch after earlier putting down a much more straightforward chance to remove Imam on 48.
It was a second-consecutive four-wicket haul for the leg-spinner, who again needed to pass a fitness test to take his place in the XI.
Rizwan, Saud Shakeel (30) and Iftikhar Ahmed (26) provided brief hope of pulling off another record World Cup chase, but once the recognised batters departed, the Pakistan tail followed suit pretty quickly, all out for 305 in the 46th over.
Babar had earlier sent the Australians in at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium with Warner and Marsh proceeding to put on a record 259 for the first wicket.
It was Australia's highest ever partnership for the first wicket at the 50-over World Cup, and an Australian ODI record for any wicket in India, eclipsing Warner and former captain Aaron Finch's unbeaten opening partnership of 258 in Mumbai in 2020 by one run to also become the highest opening partnership for any nation in India.
Warner made Pakistan pay dearly for a life on 10 when he skied an attempted pull shot in the fifth over off Shaheen Shah Afridi straight to mid-on and had started to trudge off the ground when Usama Mir spilled the simple chance.
A little more than two hours later he brought up his fourth successive century against Pakistan in one-day internationals, celebrating with his trademark jump and fist pump into the air after pushing a single to deep mid-on off Mohammed Nawaz from his 85th ball faced.
Marsh, who turned 32 on Friday, was just as ecstatic as he reached his second ODI ton the very next delivery with a powerful back foot drive to the cover boundary.
"It's nice to have that as a present on my birthday … the partnership with 'Davey' (Warner) was awesome," he told the host broadcaster at the innings beak.
"We kept each other going, even when the spinners bowled well. I tend not to celebrate tons too much but there was a fair bit of emotion today, proud of it."
The pair unleashed on speedster Haris Rauf, with Warner almost hitting him onto the roof with a 98m slog sweep-scoop from the second ball of his spell that rebounded off the advertising hoardings atop the grandstand and almost hit fine leg on the head.
Opening partner Marsh also crashed three successive boundaries through backward point as the pair took 24 runs from his first over, with his first three costing 47.
Usama, brought in for vice-captain Shadab Khan with Pakistan "trying out a new combination", also copped the treatment from Warner's blade as the left-hander dispatched him over cow corner for four to bring up a 39-ball half-century.
Marsh reached his fifty off 40 balls, and two balls later he almost launched one out of the ground too, with a straight hit off Usama also bouncing off the roof's advertising hoardings.
They put on 100 runs from 54 balls once Rauf was introduced into the attack and it was left to their superstar left-armer Shaheen to conjure the breakthrough in the 34th over, Marsh departing for a career-best 121 (108).
From there Australia began to lose their way as the promoted Maxwell followed the very next delivery for a golden duck as he tried to launch Shaheen out of the ground first ball.
Warner (163) picked out long on in the 43rd over trying to launch a fourth six off Rauf (3-83), ending his sublime 124-ball stay that included 14 boundaries and a total of nine sixes.
Only Stoinis (21) and Josh Inglis (13) reached double figures after that as Australia lost 9-104 following their second highest partnership of all-time at an ODI World Cup.
Shaheen (5-54) closed out the innings superbly with his third five-wicket haul to keep Australia under 400 and was on a hat-trick for the second time in the final over as he picked up Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in consecutive balls.
Australia's bowling effort started just the way their batting finished as Starc sent down four leg-side wides in a 10-ball first over. The side has now gone 38 overs without a wicket in the 10-over Powerplay since reducing India to 3-2 in their opening match of the World Cup.
It needed Stoinis' timely intervention and Zampa's courage to push on while clearly below full fitness as Australia forced their way back into contention and into the World Cup's top four.
Australia now travel to the Indian capital of Delhi where on Wednesday they will meet the Netherlands, who knocked off South Africa just days after the Proteas demolished Australia to the tune of 134 runs.
Australia's 2023 ODI World Cup fixtures
October 8: Lost to India by six wickets
October 12: Lost to South Africa by 134 runs
October 16: Defeated Sri Lanka by five wickets
October 20: Defeated Pakistan by 62 runs
October 25: v Netherlands, Delhi (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT
October 28: v New Zealand, Dharamsala, 4pm AEDT
November 4: v England, Ahmedabad (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT
November 7: v Afghanistan, Mumbai (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT
November 11: v Bangladesh, Pune, 4pm AEDT
November 15: First semi-final, Mumbai (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT
November 16: Second semi-final, Kolkata (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT
November 19: Final, Ahmedabad (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
2023 World Cup standings
| Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | NRR | Ded. | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
IND
|
9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.57 | 0 | 18 |
|
2
SA
|
9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.261 | 0 | 14 |
|
3
AUS
|
9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.841 | 0 | 14 |
|
4
NZ
|
9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.743 | 0 | 10 |
|
5
PAK
|
9 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | -0.199 | 0 | 8 |
|
6
AFG
|
9 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | -0.336 | 0 | 8 |
|
7
ENG
|
9 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | -0.572 | 0 | 6 |
|
8
BAN
|
9 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | -1.087 | 0 | 4 |
|
9
SL
|
9 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | -1.419 | 0 | 4 |
|
10
NED
|
9 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | -1.825 | 0 | 4 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
PTS: Total points