Nathan Ellis stars as tourists level the series with 41-run win in Lahore
Updated ,first published
Cameron Green, Matt Renshaw and youngster Ollie Peake stepped up with the bat for Australia to help the tourists seal the ODI series against Pakistan on another slow, low and turning pitch in Lahore overnight.
Resubmitted, Australia’s 9-231 was an improvement on the opening 200 in Rawalpindi and created enough scoreboard pressure to allow Nathan Ellis (4-33) and a quartet of spinners to stifle Pakistan’s chase.
Short’s part-time breaks were useful in compiling 3-36, while the fit-again Adam Zampa (1-30), Matt Kuhnemann (1-41) and Tanveer Sangha (1-22) broke through.
This could have been another instance where Australia stumbled against spin, particularly after Alex Carey dragged the first ball of the match and Short and Marnus Labuschagne fell five runs apart as the visitors fell to 3-51 after taking 4-68 in game one.
Chasing a duck when he was bowled with a good length delivery off the back foot in Rawalpindi, Green used his considerable height to come forward and cover the stumps even as left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas (2-27) had bowled him on multiple occasions.
Inglis fashioned a smart 51 from 74 balls before being bowled out by a bouncing ball.
Renshaw (43) played another sensible over as the Aussies looked to pick up the tempo in the second part of the innings, before contributing an excellent cameo that showed why Peake (31 from 32 balls) was rated high enough to feature in this tour.
With a boundary and a six off the quick Haris Rauf in the final over, Peake ensured that the target was over 230. This was a 1990s-type first innings total, in much more difficult batting conditions than most white-ball players were used to.
“I know the guys had some good talks yesterday about training and individual methods and how they were going to do it,” tour captain Josh Inglis said.
“Obviously it was wicket dependent and it was very similar to the other day.
“All in all it was a pretty good total. It would have been nice for someone to go on and get a big score, but it was just about building that partnership in the middle, just being kind and patient and yeah we thought something over 200, we were right in the game.”
“So yeah, I thought the players played really well today. There were some good contributions overall and some good partnerships on the batting front.”
While it could be argued that it was Australia’s single pacer in Ellis that did the most damage in Australia’s successful defence, Tasmania’s skill range is well suited to such surfaces.
He expertly mixes his pace and lengths with a slower ball with the back of his hand, one of the best in the world.
“It’s no secret it’s pretty low and slow today, which means you can bring your length back and still hit the top of the log,” Ellis said.
“Being a slightly shorter shooter allows me to do that in most places anyway.
“But yeah, I think today we saw the cutters and slow bowlers working hard and the ball started to move backwards from the 35th to the 45th over.”
Ellis’s first over was a slower ball, prompting Maaz Sadaqat to drag the first ball in Carey style, before a precise delivery pinned Pakistan’s key man Babar Azam lbw.
With Kuhnemann, Short and Zampa coming on regularly and keeping the scoring rate low, Pakistan fell to 6-78.
Arafat and Shadab Khan shared a stand of 50 before Ellis came back to take another lbw to put Australia on the winning path.
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of many books on cricket.Connect with: X.
