Australia v Pakistan ODI series: Tourists defeated as concerns grow about Aaron Finch’s form
Australia has been wiped in back-to-back ODIs to concede their series to Pakistan, as captain Aaron Finch confronts a major form crisis.
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Australian captain and opener Aaron Finch admits his poor form is haunting him after a second consecutive duck as Australia lost the game and the series to Pakistan overnight.
It is, Finch says, all in the first few deliveries and all in his head - or where his head is at.
The veteran has not played a lot of ODIs lately but has been out in single figures in eight of his last 11 limited overs innings.
It was a case of one one day too many for the Australian team which fell feebly to Babar Azam’s Pakistan in Lahore to lose the series 2-1 overnight.
Finch said there were a lot of positives who exposed a second string bowling attack to some of the world’s best batting and saw some impressive batting from Travis Head and Ben McDermott in particular.
It was, however, a big moment for the home side which had won just one of 17 ODIs against Australia in the past decade.
And, a bigger moment for Babar who scored his second successive century, celebrating with a secular punch in the air and an observant sajda (bowing head to ground in prayer) in the final overs of the game.
Finch’s men had started well with a high scoring win in the first match, were chased down after posting a respectable 348 in the second, but were bowled out in the 42nd over for 210 here.
Pakistan passed the visitor’s total with nine wickets in hand and 12.1 overs to spare thanks Babar and opener Imam ul Haq.
The captain, who now averages 59 in the format, has scores of 115, 114 and 57 from the three matches.
Imam had a great series too, finishing on 89no after scoring 106 and 103.
Both averaged well in excess of a 100 with a run rate above a run a ball.
Maybe Australia would have been in with a chance if Travis Head held on to a chance from Babar when the Pakistan captain was on one, but he didn’t.
Jason Behrendorff, in for Mitchell Swepson, was the unlucky bowler. Nathan Ellis was the only wicket taker for the Australians. Both held their own in the face of some impressive hitting on a wicket made for batsmen.
The fielding error topped off a bad night for Head who fell for a golden duck fell first ball of the match.
Things got worse for the side when Finch fell soon after, also for a duck.
Finch will look to score a few runs in the IPL with Kokata Knight Riders because there’s a few pups pressing for a place in a one day team, but you don’t write off champions too quickly.
Especially when they’re your captain and doubly so when they carry the weight of 5000 odd ODI runs, 17 centuries and 29 half centuries.
Selectors won’t be panicking but the top order of this team know that with Head and McDermott and Cameron Green demanding to be seen that there is some serious competition for places.
Still at 35 times winged chariot hurries nearer and faster than it did before.
“Obviously my form hasn’t been up to scratch, I’ve been well short of runs in the Sri Lanka series and this series here,” he said.
“It’s frustrating, no doubt. I think as you get older you probably question yourself a little bit more but I still feel all my training has been really positive, it’s just been the first couple of balls getting my pad in the way which has been a thing throughout my career.
“It would be nice if that didn’t happen but I feel confident that I can turn it around in the next series against Sri Lanka.”
Finch said a knee operation has restricted his training but he is back to full fitness on this series. The LBW issue, is one he is addressing.
“My head is falling across slightly in the first five or six balls of a game,” he said.
“At training I line up everything quite well, I keep stable and upright, I think it is the adrenaline and nerves and my head seems to fall over slightly which causes my front foot to fall over. My head just just gets outside my body in the first 10 balls but once you pass that 10 balls its not really an issue.”
When Marnus Labuschagne fell for 4 the Australians were 3-6.
Ben McDermott’s 36 helped proceedings, but he was not able to summon the form that saw him score a half century in the first match and his maiden century in the first.
Alex Carey had only nine runs to his name from the first outings, but he scored 56 and with Cameron Green (34) the pair put on a partnership of 81 which gave the innings some respectability.
Sean Abbott (49) came was denied his first half century for Australia when he was caught attempting to play a ramp shot to reach the milestone.
His entertaining innings included an over where he took Shaheen Shah Afridi down for 21 and consecutive overs where he was dropped by Afridi running for a difficult sky ball and then somehow survived a lollipop that landed between the bowler, the keeper and another fielder in the following over.
Abbott, is a handy hitter and has a first class century but his highest domestic 50 over score is just 50.
GAME TWO REPORT: AUSSIES DOWNED DESPITE MCDERMOTT TON
Ben McDermott scored his maiden ODI century, but it was not enough - nor was the visitor’s total of 8-348 - as Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq responded with hundreds of their own to give Pakistan an impressive victory.
McDermott said that if it wasn’t for Covid striking down Josh Inglis he would not be in this team.
“I’m obviously not probably in the best team in Australia at the moment and probably wasn’t starting off,” said McDermott after the match.
“But fortunately for me, I got my opportunities through Covid And the unfortunate Mitch Marsh injury as well.
“So I probably wasn’t even in the team that was going to start but yeah, that was it, it was building depth and it probably wasn’t our best team. Obviously we were going to come to compete and we won the first game but it didn’t go our way tonight, but we come again in a couple days time.
“But yeah, definitely feels that way, I suppose. It’s not probably our best team. But there’s a few guys resting after a pretty long summer and a pretty long Test series.
“I’d love to be in the best team but I probably wasn’t in the starting 11 to begin with and then got up due to the injuries, Mitch Marsh and Covid cases.
“So yeah, really good to get an opportunity and even better when you probably weren’t supposed to be in the 11 but I take these opportunities when they come.
“I've had a lot of opportunities in international cricket now. I think I’ve played over 30 games of international cricket so see it’s really nice to sort of start seeing some results of the hard work that I’ve been putting in.
“I suppose a 50 in the T20 series against Sri Lanka started well in that series, finished poorly and then just to start well on this ODI series has been very pleasing to me.”
Babar and Iman’s innings contributed to the team’s highest ever run chase on a wicket where batsmen dominated and bowlers struggled.
Pakistan chased down the total with six balls to spare and levelled the three match series one all.
Babar’s 15th ODI century was a masterclass and further proof of just how good the local captain is with bat in hand.
In the first game of the series he became the second fastest batsman to 4000 ODI runs, in this he became the fastest (83 innings) to bring up 15 centuries.
The Pakistani right hander has an average of 57 in the format and played some magnificent strokes against what is admittedly a second choice Australian attack.
Babar fell on 114 from 82 deliveries, but by that stage Pakistan was 3-309 in the 45th over and in control on a wicket where the bounce was true and spin not sighted.
There were 19 sixes hit at the Lahore stadium, which is one of the bigger grounds in cricket, but the biggest was the last - monster a 101m free hit slog from Kushdil Shah off the bowling of Nathan Ellis.
Adam Zampa took 2-71 and Nathan Ellis 1-69 the rest had no fun.
The Australian batsmen had a better night than their bowlers.
If the big boys were here, Travis Head and Ben McDermott could well have been sitting this series out, but in their absence the pair are making a compelling case for residency.
Head hadn’t played an ODI since 2018, McDermott was playing his fourth and only got his chance to play the first two against the West Indies because the A-listers were otherwise occupied.
Andrew McDonald said before the limited overs series that selectors were pretty confident of the shape of their team for this year’s T20 World Cup and presumably for next year’s 50 over variety.
If Head and McDermott were not part of those plans they should be now.
It was the South Australian captain who (apologies in advance) grabbed headlines for his 70 ball century opening the batting in the first match, but on Thursday night in Pakistan it was McDermott’s turn.
Like Head he is murderous in his attack. Brutal and sure-eyed, he has been belting domestic attacks in the Marsh Cup where he has scored four centuries and averaging over 50.
McDermott struck 10 fours and four sixes on his way to 104 from 108 deliveries.
Head’s hard hitting was as impressive as in the first match.
Shaheen Shah Afriid may have hooped one into the pads to have Aaron Finch out for a golden duck - you could feel the mode of dismissal coming when the Pakistani got the new ball swinging from his first delivery - but the interim opener was having none of that.
Head twice based the impressive local seamer back over his head for six.
He hit six fours and five sixes in his 70 ball 89 but threw away the chance of another hundred when he skied a sweep shot off the elderly but inexperienced Zahid Mahmood.
Mahmood made his debut at 34 in the first game of the series. You could be forgiven for thinking you have to be a 17 or 34 to get your start.
And then there’s Marnus Labuschagne, again someone who has only played 13 ODI’s before this series - admittedly Australia has had limited inclination for limited overs since he announced himself in the 2019 Ashes.
Praised as an all-rounder by Aaron Finch before the first match but not bowled in it, the energetic Queenslander hit a crisp 59 from 49 to sustain the moment established by McDermott and Head.
Marcus Stoinis fell one short of a half century from 33 deliveries in, losing his wicket in the final over.
His contribution, however, did not end there. Having failed by a fraction to pull off a brilliant circus catch on the other side of the boundary off the batting of the dangerous Fakhar Zaman, he deceived the opener with an change-up off spinner that would have done Nathan Lyon proud.
Fakhar comes from a valley in the tribal regions of what was the North West Frontier Province (now known as Pashtunka) but left as a teenager to join the navy.
His batting skills, however, saw him elevated from first class to the Pakistan Super League and from there into the national team.
Fakhar is the only Pakistani to score a double hundred in an ODI and probably should have had two were it not for a controversial ‘fake fielding’ run out by Quinton de Kock when he was on 193 he may well have had another.
He and Imam-ul Haq put on 118 for the first wicket and looked like they would reel in Australia's’s total after again opting to bat second before Fakhar lost his wicket.
Imam too is in a sweet spot, following his century in the first match and two centuries in the first Test of the Benaud Qadir trophy
Originally published as Australia v Pakistan ODI series: Tourists defeated as concerns grow about Aaron Finch’s form
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