Captain Steve Smith notched an unbeaten century and debutant Peter Handscomb scored 82 in Australia’s emphatic seven-wicket victory in the third one-day international against Pakistan in Perth, Australia, yesterday.
Smith made 108 off 104 balls, while Handscomb — caught off a no-ball before he had scored and then dropped on 10 — went on to make 82 off 84 balls in Australia’s chase of 265-3 with five overs to spare.
Half-centuries by Babar Azam (84) and Sharjeel Khan (50) had lifted Pakistan to 263-7 after Smith won the toss and put Pakistan into bat at the WACA.
Photo: AFP
“I love batting and scoring runs, it was nice to get another big one. When you get yourself in, this is one of the best places to bat,” said Smith, who hit 11 fours and a six in his eighth one-day century. “We bowled pretty well in the afternoon to restrict them to 260 odd when it was a 320 wicket.”
Left-arm bowlers Junaid Khan and Mohammad Amir removed openers David Warner (35) and Usman Khawaja (9) in successive overs to make it 45-2. A run was added before Junaid found the edge of Handscomb’s bat only to see he had overstepped.
Junaid came close to removing Handscomb again, but substitute Mohammad Nawaz missed a sitter.
Handscomb, who scored prolifically in the 3-0 rout of Pakistan in the preceding Test series, combined in a better than a run-a-ball 183-run stand with Smith to give his side a 2-1 series lead.
“Had some luck, but I was happy to grab the opportunity,” Handscomb said. “I was just trying to use my feet to try and go forward or back to unsettle the bowlers ... we were confident of chasing this total down.”
Smith raised his ton when he pulled Hasan Ali to the midwicket boundary, before the right-arm seamer broke the stand by having Handscomb glove a shot to diving wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.
Earlier, Pakistan could not keep up the scoring pace set up by Azam and Sharjeel.
“There was a platform for us to make 300 plus, but we missed our opportunity,” Hafeez said. “No-balls are all part of the game, but the effort was there from the bowlers. Once you miss those chances, the pressure will always be on you. Everyone has to lift themselves”
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