Matthew Wade hit a thrilling final-ball century to set up a 92-run victory for Australia over Pakistan in the first one-day international at the Gabba in Brisbane yesterday.
Wicketkeeper Wade boosted Australia to 268-9 off their 50 overs after the top order had slumped to 78-5.
Seamer James Faulkner then took four wickets for 32 to help Australia dismiss Pakistan for 176 off 42.4 overs.
Photo: EPA
Pakistan were well-placed with Australia five down in the 17th over before Wade and Glenn Maxwell (60) put on 82 runs for the sixth wicket to push on.
The tourists could not put any pressure on Australia in their innings, with skipper Azhar Ali injuring a hamstring and Babar Azam top-scoring with 33.
Mohammad Amir struck early with the key wickets of adventurous opener David Warner and skipper Steve Smith with successive balls to have Australia rocking at 13-2 in the fifth over.
“It was challenging at the top, it was swinging and seaming around,” man-of-the-match Wade said. “Maxi [Maxwell] took the pressure off me and I was just looking to get him on strike. I was absolutely cooked” by the final over.
Wade, who has been under pressure to score runs after a lean spell, hit seven fours and two sixes in his knock for his first one-day century.
Pakistan skipper Azhar injured a hamstring and retired hurt, only to return in pain and try to help his side late innings before he became another Faulkner victim for 24.
“It’s a bit sore, but hopefully it will recover soon,” Azhar said. “The physio will have a better look and see how far I can get. Hopefully, I can take part in the next game.”
“We thought from five down for 78 we can get them out early, but unfortunately it didn’t happen,” the Pakistan skipper said.
Smith said Australia paid for being in too much of a hurry at the top of their innings.
“It was a pretty average start. We were in a bit of a hurry, to be fair,” Smith said. “I thought Matthew Wade played an exceptional innings, 270 was around par, it was a bit of a slow wicket. We bat all the way down. Mitchell Starc is batting at No. 10 at the moment. We’ve got a long order.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier