The Australian opener David Warner smashed an impressive knock of 163 runs in the match against Pakistan in the ICC World Cup 2023.
David Warner on victory against Pakistan
Australia is scheduled to play in the 18th ICC World Cup 2023 match against Pakistan on October 20 at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. The five-time champions had a poor start as they lost two matches out of the three they played in the ICC event and Pakistan has lost one match out of the three they played in the tournament.
On this occasion, both sides expect to make a comeback as they await a victory in the World Cup. Winning the toss, Pakistan chose to bowl where David Warner and Mitchell Marsh opened the innings while Shaheen Afridi opened the bowling attack.
The openers had a great start as Mitchell Marsh scored 121 runs on 108 deliveries while Glenn Maxwell was sent out with a duck by Shaheen Afridi. David Warner was impressive as they scored 163 runs on 124 deliveries and was sent out by Haris Rauf.
They joined the list of highest partnership scores for Australia in World Cups. Steven Smith was dismissed by Usama Mir for seven runs. Despite the openers having a great start, the other batters were sent out with low figures on the regular Interval.
Marcus Stoinis and Josh Inglis scored 21 and 13 runs respectively. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood were dismissed by Shaheen for 2 and a duck. Afridi was impressive with his terrific bowling attack and dismissed five wickets while Haris Rauf dismissed three wickets.
By the end of 50 overs, Australia scored 367 runs losing 9 wickets. With a target of 368 runs, Pakistan will be starting their innings where Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq opened the innings while Mitchell Starc opened the bowling attack.
The openers had a fine start as they scored 134 runs which is one of the highest opening partnerships for Pakistan in World Cups. Abdullah Shafique scored 64 runs while Imam-ul-Haq scored 70 runs and was sent out by Stoinis.
Babar Azam scored 18 runs and was sent out by Adam Zampa. With the dismissal of Saud Shakeel by Pat Cummins for 30 runs, Pakistan was down to the last six wickets on the 35th over.
Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz scored 26 and 14 runs and were sent out by Adam Zampa. Other batters were sent out with low figures at regular intervals.
Adam Zampa dismissed four wickets while Pat Cummins and Marcus Stoinis dismissed two wickets while Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood dismissed one wicket each. By the end, Pakistan scored 305 runs on 46th over losing all 10 wickets. David Warner was named as the player of the Match.
While speaking at the post-match conference David Warner said, It (groin) is a little bit sore, all cramps at the moment, that’s all it is. It (partnership with Marsh) was awesome, once we got the pace of the wicket, we were going to try and target their bowlers.
For us to go out there and put on a performance like that is very pleasing. Committing and backing my skills, I had a good hit yesterday, it was ticking along, I was just one bit of luck away and it helps when you’re hitting the ball out of the middle.
Playing on a ground like this as well, you have to take those chances. Just to get out there and build a partnership with Mitch today. We spoke about trying to bat till 35 overs at least and then probably score heavily in the back end.
From our perspective, there’s a little bit of tinkering there we got to work on, we lost 5 or 6 wickets in the last 10. Every run is valuable, part of my DNA is to run hard between wickets, I have always done that and I’ll always continue to keep doing that as long as I keep playing,” he concluded.
Australia will be facing the Netherlands in the 24th match of the ICC World Cup on October 25 at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
