06/02/26 03:09:00
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06/02 15:07 CDT Nathan Ellis shines as Australia beats Pakistan by 41 runs to
level ODI series
Nathan Ellis shines as Australia beats Pakistan by 41 runs to level ODI series
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) --- Fast bowler Nathan Ellis grabbed a career-best 4-33
on yet another tricky wicket and led Australia to series-leveling 41-run win
over Pakistan on Tuesday in the second one-day international.
Pakistan, which won the first game by five wickets on a turning wicket, was
bowled out for 190 after Australia had scored 231-9 on a pitch that had plenty
of turn for the spinners and variable bounce for the seam bowlers.
"It's definitely different to the traditional one-day cricket we see around the
world at the moment," Ellis said in reference to Pakistan's ploy to make
rank-turners for the series against an understrength Australia.
"It's no secret that today it was pretty low and slow ... we saw the cutters
and the slow balls working a lot today, and the ball started to tail and
reverse swing through the 35-to-45-over mark."
Half-centuries from captain Josh Inglis (51) and Cameron Green (53) were
supported by Matthew Renshaw's run-a-ball 43, while 19-year-old Oliver Peake
added 31 off 32 balls after Pakistan captain Shaheen Shah Afridi won the toss
and elected to field.
Left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas, who became the first Pakistani bowler to take
five wickets in his debut ODI at Rawalpindi last Saturday, returned figures of
2-27.
Leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed had 2-34 while the pace duo of captain Afridi (3-36)
and Haris Rauf (2-49) shared five wickets between them.
All-rounder Shadab Khan scored 71 off 104 balls to make amends for his
wicketless return of 0-56 and took the Pakistan chase deep before he was the
last man dismissed --- stumped down the legside by Inglis off leg-spinner
Tanveer Sangha.
Ellis struck in his first over when Maaz Sadaqat played the ball back onto his
stumps, and then the fast bowler had Babar Azam (16) lbw off a delivery that
nipped sharply into Pakistan's premier batter in the fifth over.
Pakistan's middle-order struggled to cope with the spin of Matthew Short (3-36)
and slumped to 78-6 before Shadab and Arafat Minhas (33) revived the chase with
a 59-run partnership.
But Ellis broke the stand when he had Minhas trapped lbw in the 32nd over.
Shadab got to his fifth half-century in ODIs and struck two sixes against Green.
The series concludes Thursday at the same venue.
"It was a pretty good total in the end," Inglis said. "It would have been nice
for someone to go on and get a big score, but .... we thought anything over
200, we were right in the game.
"You can always call on Nello (Ellis) on those sort of pitches, his variations
are outstanding, and when you've got on-pace at 145 and then your slow balls at
just over 100k an hour, it's really tough."
Australia batters show plenty of patience
The slowness of the wicket was evident after Alex Carey had dragged Afridi's
first ball of the match back onto his stumps and the Pakistan skipper didn't
hesitate to introduce his two best spinners --- Minhas and Abrar --- from both
ends inside the power play.
Abrar had an early success when he found the leading edge of Short's bat for a
comfortable return catch and Marnus Labuschagne once again failed to bat on
turning tracks when he top-edged a sweep against Minhas and fell for 5.
Inglis and Green then shut out expansive shots and shared a 51-run stand off 93
balls. Inglis raised his half-century with a reverse swept boundary against
Abrar before he was undone by low bounce and was clean bowled by Minhas.
Green continued to grind out against spinners and together with Renshaw raised
a 65-run stand before Green finally ran out of patience soon after scoring his
half-century and holed out to long-on to give Abrar his second wicket.
Rauf then rattled Renshaw's stumps with a full-pitched delivery from round the
wicket in the 44th over, but Peake ensured Australia had enough runs on board
by smashing two sixes and a boundary before he was bowled in the final over.
"We gave away 20-30 extra runs towards the end," Afridi said. "We lost wickets
early on and that built pressure on us ... it is a spinning track, not easy to
bat on, but the way Nathan Ellis bowled --- stump to stump --- that brought him
success."
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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
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