Pakistan won a bilateral ODI series in Australia after a gap of 22 years when Mohammad Rizwan-led Pakistan defeated the Aussies by eight wickets at Perth Stadium on Sunday, 11 November. (Match Blog | More Cricket News)
Toss Update
Pakistan won the toss and have opted to field first against Australia.
Playing XIs
Australia: Matthew Short, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Josh Inglis(w/c), Cooper Connolly, Marcus Stoinis, Aaron Hardie, Glenn Maxwell, Sean Abbott, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson, Lance Morris
Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan(w/c), Kamran Ghulam, Agha Salman, Irfan Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain
Pakistan went in the third and final ODI with the same playing XI but Australia made five changes. Lance Morris, Cooper Connolly, Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott and Spencer Johnson were added to the playing XI which was led by the stand-in captain Josh Inglis.
Full-time captain Pat Cummins and other senior players have been rested from the final ODI to prepare for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India, starting on 22 November.
This change badly affected Australia in the series decider as their batting lineup was completely bamboozled by Pakistan's pace attack and they were restricted to 140 runs after being asked to bat first.
Jake Fraser-McGurk's poor run in the series continued and Naseem Shah got rid of him early in the match. Aaron Hardie also gave his wicket to Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Making his ODI captaincy debut, Josh Inglis could only make seven runs and Cooper Connolly retired hurt after making seven runs. Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell also disappointed with their poor batting.
Sean Abbott was the highest scorer for Australia with 30 off 41 balls. Matthew Short spent some time at the crease but gave his wicket to Haris Rauf in the 14th over. He also dismissed Maxwell for a duck.
Naseem Shah and Afridi shared three wickets each whereas Mohammad Hasnain removed the destructive all-rounder Stoinis. Rauf was named Player of the Match and Player of the Series for his brilliant performance.
It was similar to the second match in the Adelaide Oval where Pakistan easily chased down the target. But there were some changes. Saim Ayub and Abdullah Shafique added 84 runs for the first wicket but Lance Morris removed both the openers.
Babar Azam (28 not out off 30 balls) and Rizwan (30 not out off 27 balls) finished the game with Azam hitting the winning run in the 27th over.
Pakistan won the series after losing the first ODI match in Melbourne. They bounced back in the next two matches and won the series with ease. It was Mohammad Rizwan's first series as Pakistan's full-time ODI captain and he delivered what the nation needed.
Now, Pakistan will move to the Gabba in Brisbane for the first T20I of the three-game bilateral series which starts on Thursday, 14 November.
