Australia vs Pakistan, first ODI: Captain Cummins leads hosts to nervy win

Cummins’s all-round performance took Australia to a two-wicket win in Melbourne for a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.

Australia’s captain Pat Cummins has guided his team home to a tense two-wicket win over Pakistan after a brief wobble in their run-chase in the first one-day international (ODI) in Melbourne.

Cummins scored 32 crucial runs and took two wickets as Australia chased 204 despite a late Pakistani fightback, and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series on Monday.

Pakistan were dismissed for 203 in 46.4 overs after being asked to bat first as their batters failed to cope with the Australian pace attack on a fast and bouncy pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Australia, who won the ODI World Cup in India in 2023, were coasting towards the target with Steve Smith and Josh Inglis at the crease at 113-2 after 16.2 overs.

However, the visitors posed a brief threat to the world champions when their fast bowlers combined to take five wickets for 45 runs and opened up the match.

Cummins, though, was calm while wickets fell around him and hit four boundaries as he completed the chase with fellow fast bowler Mitchell Starc.

The captain, playing his first ODI since the World Cup final, burnished his record of guiding Australia to victory from positions of peril, having scored the winning runs during the Ashes Test at Edgbaston last year and twice hung tough with the bat at the World Cup.

“Tonight we got it done. I always much prefer sitting in the changing room but a wonderful match,” Cummins said afterwards.

“It got a bit tighter than we would have liked in the end.”

The ground was only a quarter full with a crowd of 25,800, but Rauf had Pakistan fans jumping in the terraces with a sizzling spell that included dismissing Marnus Labuschagne (16) and Glenn Maxwell (0) in successive deliveries.

Pace spearhead Starc was named man of the match with three wickets, including both the openers of Pakistan.

In Pakistan’s first ODI since missing the World Cup semifinals, the team’s top batter, Babar Azam, returned to the lineup after being stunningly dropped for the second and third Tests against England.

The former captain made 37 off 44 balls before being bowled by leg-spinner Adam Zampa with an ill-judged push at a straight delivery.

Saim Ayub made his ODI debut as Mohammad Rizwan captained Pakistan, reprising his opening partnership in Tests with Abdullah Shafique, despite the pair’s terrible record batting together.

Both were dismissed cheaply by Starc; Ayub for one after chopping onto his stumps and Shafique caught behind for 12.

Rizwan top-scored for Pakistan with 44 and ODI debutant Irfan Khan made 22 batting at seven before being run out.

But it took tail-end slogging from Naseem Shah (40) and Afridi (24) to push Pakistan past 200.