MELBOURNE, Nov 4: Captain Pat Cummins kept his nerve on his return to international cricket to lead Australia to a nervy two-wicket win over Pakistan in the first one-day international on Monday.
A calm Cummins made an unbeaten 32 off 31 balls to steer Australia to 204-8 with more than 16 overs to spare, after the middle-order had stumbled in a modest run chase.
Searing pace from Mitchell Starc (3-33) had earlier helped to bowl out Pakistan for 203 with Cummins, playing his first international since the T20 World Cup in June, picking up 2-39 after he won the toss and elected to field.
Josh Inglis (49) and Steve Smith (44) had the chase under control at 113-2 before Pakistan’s four-pronged pace attack had Australia reeling at 155-7 on a bouncy MCG wicket.
Fast bowler Haris Rauf (3-67) ignited the collapse when he had Smith caught at point and then Marnus Labuschagne (16) and Glenn Maxwell (0) were undone by pacey deliveries.
Shaheen Shah Afridi picked up 2-43, but Cummins added 30 runs with Sean Abbott before the skipper carried his side over the line for a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Earlier, five of Pakistan’s six top-order batters, fresh from playing on spinning wickets at home against England, struggled to cope with the pace of Starc and Cummins.
Babar Azam, who was omitted from the last two test victories against England, made a fluent 37 as the rest of the top-order crumbled.
Starc removed debutant Saim Ayub in his second over when the left-hander played the ball back onto his stumps, and Abdullah Shafique couldn’t pull his bat out of the way of another short delivery and was caught behind.
Starc, playing his 54th ODI in Australia, reached 100 wickets at home and broke the record of Brett Lee, who achieved his milestone in 55 ODIs.
The left-armer Starc is now fourth on the all-time list of Australian ODI bowlers, behind Glenn McGrath, Lee and Shane Warne.
Pakistan’s new white-ball captain Mohammad Rizwan struggled to accelerate before leg-spinner Adam Zampa had Babar clean bowled in his first over. Rizwan made 44 off 71 balls before he top-edged a sweep to Labuschagne, the ball deflecting off his helmet to gave wicketkeeper Inglis his third catch.
Kamran Ghulam couldn’t gauge the steep bounce provided by Cummins and gloved a simple catch behind the wicket before the Pakistan tail-enders frustrated Australia.
Naseem Shah smashed a better than a run-a-ball 40 with four sixes and Afridi scored a quickfire 24 off 19 balls which lifted Pakistan beyond the 200-run mark. But Cummins wrapped up the innings by having Naseem caught at mid-off.
Naseem and Afridi then dismissed openers Jake Fraser-McGurk (16) and Matt Short (1) before Smith and Inglis combined in an 85-run partnership.
Pakistan fought back well with the majority of the 25,831 spectators backing the visitors, but Cummins took his side home at the end.
Naseem injured his left calf in his follow through and left the field with Australia needing eight for victory.
The second game will be played in Adelaide on Friday with the final ODI in Perth on Sunday. The series will be followed by three T20s. (PTI)
