Beth Mooney played one of the best innings of her career as Australia recovered from a precarious position to beat Pakistan by 107 runs in Colombo on Wednesday (October 8).
Asked to bat first, most of Australia’s big names once again failed to perform aggressively. Australia’s batting declined for the second consecutive match in the current World Cup. After being reduced to 128/5 against New Zealand, Australia were playing at 76/7 in the 22nd over against Pakistan.
Captain Alyssa Healy looked in good form and hit three fours in quick succession before being out for 20 runs. Phoebe Litchfield (10), Ellyse Perry (5), Annabel Sutherland (1), Tahlia McGrath (5) and last match’s centurion Ashley Gardner (1) also could not score big and Australia got into all kinds of trouble.
Their spinners caused damage for Pakistan. Nashra Sandhu took three wickets while Ramin Shamim took two wickets. Captain Fatima Sana also took two wickets.
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Pakistan had caught the neck of the Australian team
At 78/7 it looked like Australia would be bowled out for a paltry score. However, Beth Mooney had other ideas. While most of his teammates struggled to cope on a difficult batting pitch, he played one of the best World Cup innings ever to rescue his team.
He scored 109 runs and Australia posted a challenging score of 221/9 in the allotted 50 overs. She received good support from people like Kim Garth and Alana King. Mooney and Garth capped the innings by adding 39 runs for the eighth wicket. While Garth scored only 11 runs, she managed to play 47 balls.
After this there was a decisive 106-run partnership between Mooney and King. This partnership ended on the last ball of the innings when Mooney was out. On the other hand, King remained unbeaten after scoring 51 runs on 49 balls.
Both of them increased their aggression at the right time and took their team to a score of more than 220. King, who was batting on 16 off 34 balls at one point, hit three sixes to bring up his maiden ODI half-century off just 46 balls. Australia ended their innings strongly by scoring 53 runs in the last four overs.
Australia blasted Pakistan with the ball:
While Australia managed to score 221 runs, Pakistan still had a chance to register their first win over them in the 50-over format. However, it didn’t take long for Australia to dash those hopes. Garth and Megan Scutt dismantled Pakistan’s top order in no time as the Women in Green found themselves in trouble at 49/6 inside 13 overs.
Ultimately they were out for just 114 runs in 36.3 overs. Sidra Amin (35) was the only batsman from Pakistan to cross the 20-run mark with the bat. For Australia, Garth took three wickets while Shutt and Sutherland took two wickets each.
australia vs pakistan brief score
Australia 221-9 (50 overs): Beth Mooney 109 (114), Alana King 51* (49); Nashra Sandhu 3-37
Pakistan 114 (36.3 overs): Sidra Amin 35 (52); Kim Garth 3-14
Result:Australia won by 107 runs