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Star pacer Harris Rauf’s excellent bowling with five wickets helped Pakistan to bowl out Australia for 163 in the 2nd ODI, being played in Adelaide Oval today.
Put into bat first, the strong Australian batting unit struggled against a disciplined Pakistan bowling attack and was consequently swept away in 35 overs.
Australia’s new opening pair of Jake Fraser-McGurk (13) and Matthew Short (19) once again failed to provide its side a steady start.
The duo, after making modest contributions, fell victim to Shaheen Shah Afridi, who went on to register brilliant bowling figures of 3/26.
Following the early hiccup, experienced batter Steve Smith was joined by wicketkeeper batter Josh Inglis and launched a recovering partnership.
But the pair could only add 38 runs to their third-wicket partnership as Haris Rauf got Inglis (18) caught behind in the 14th over.
He struck again in his next over to get rid of Marnus Labuschagne, who made a scratchy six off 11 deliveries.
Mohammad Hasnain then added further to the misery of the home side by dismissing set batter Smith, reducing Australia to 101/5 in 20.5 overs.
Smith remained the top-scorer for Australia with a gutsy 35 off 48 deliveries, hitting six boundaries including a six.
Meanwhile, Haris, fuelled with momentum, took two more wickets — Aaron Hardie (13) and Glenn Maxwell (16) — in successive overs before rounding up his second ODI five-wicket haul by dismissing Australian captain Pat Cummins (13).
Later, Adam Zampa added valuable runs to Australia’s total at the backend with a brief 18-run cameo before being cleaned up by Shaheen in the 35th over.
The right-arm pacer returned magnificent bowling figures of 5/29 in eight overs, followed by Shaheen and Naseem Shah with three and two respectively, while Hasnain picked one.
Remember, Australia lead the three-match series 1-0, courtesy of their hard-fought two-wicket victory in the opening fixture on Monday.
