Bengaluru
\nAustralia beat Pakistan by 62 runs in a high-scoring World Cup group game on Friday to get their campaign back on track with a second straight win thanks to centuries from their opening pair of David Warner and Mitchell Marsh.
\nPakistan won the toss and put Australia in to bat but skipper Babar Azam\u2019s hopes of taking early wickets quickly evaporated when Warner (163) and Marsh (121) went all guns blazing to put on a 259-run stand.
\nBut the rest of Australia\u2019s batting order collapsed with the last six wickets falling for 38 runs while Pakistan\u2019s Shaheen Shah Afridi finished with 5-54.
\nIn response, Pakistan\u2019s Abdullah Shafique (64) and Imam-ul-Haq (70) laid the platform for the chase with a 134-run opening partnership but the rest of the top order failed to build on promising starts as they were bundled out for 305.
\nSpinner Adam Zampa was the pick of the Australia bowlers as he cleaned up the middle order to finish with figures of 4-53 to move Australia up to fourth – level with fifth-placed Pakistan on four points but with a better net run rate.
\nPakistan lost a review for lbw when Warner faced the first ball of the innings from Afridi while the fast bowler saw Usama Mir put down a routine catch at mid-on when the Australian had scored 10.
\nFrom then on Warner and Marsh punished the Pakistan bowling attack, taking advantage of the flat wicket and short boundaries at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
\nHaris Rauf conceded 24 runs in his first over as the bowlers experimented with line and length to no avail, while Warner and Marsh notched up their centuries in the 31st over.
\nAfridi had contained them before the early onslaught but even he was not spared as Marsh welcomed him back for his second spell with a straight six to bring up Australia\u2019s 250.
\nBut Marsh fell to the fast bowler as Mir made amends with a catch at short fine leg, while Glenn Maxwell was dismissed for nought the next ball when he skied his shot to Azam at mid-on.
\nWarner denied Afridi a hat-trick in the first ball of his next over but Steve Smith fell cheaply for seven when he was caught and bowled by Mir.
\nRauf had gone for 65 runs in 4.1 overs before he finally got Warner caught in the deep when the opener looked to clear the long-on boundary.
\nThe Australian received a standing ovation from the crowd and handshakes from the Pakistan players as he walked off with his seventh 150-plus score in ODIs.
\nHowever, Australia then collapsed with Marcus Stoinis making the next highest score (21) as Afridi finished with figures of 5-54 when he cleaned up the tail.
\nTeams
\nAustralia: Mitchell Marsh, David Warner, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuchagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (capt), Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
\nPakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf
\nUmpires: Chris Brown (NZL) and Richard Illingworth (ENG)
\nTV Umpire: Michael Gough (ENG)
\nMatch Referee: Richie Richardson (WIS)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bengaluru Australia beat Pakistan by 62 runs in a high-scoring World Cup group game on Friday to get their campaign back on track with a second straight win thanks to centuries from their opening pair of David Warner and Mitchell Marsh. Pakistan won the toss and put Australia in to bat but skipper Babar Azam\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-362914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n