Arafat Minhas takes five wickets in first ODI for Pakistan to upstage Australia’s Ollie Peale on debut
Updated ,first published
This was supposed to be a big day for Ollie Peake and he edged out Australia’s youngest ODI debutant, Ricky Ponting.
Instead it turned into a showcase for Pakistan opener Arafat Minhas, the crafty left-arm spinner, who took 5-32 as the underdog tourists were stunned on a spinning and low Rawalpindi pitch. No Pakistani has ever scored a five on ODI debut before.
By the time Peake came into the middle in the seventh over, most of the damage had already been done: senior men Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green all fell quickly to effectively rule out any big total for Australia.
This was the kind of fragmentation Australia had seen repeatedly in South Asia over the years. The absence of Travis Head and Steve Smith may have managed to stop the bleeding a little more effectively.
Matt Short and Matt Renshaw played well to try and remedy the situation somewhat, but could never quite get things under control against the spin bowlers, who kept the scoring rate low while producing occasional moments of magic in beneficial circumstances.
“When you’re four down early it becomes really difficult to try and get a big score,” Renshaw said. “We made a few really good partnerships, but unfortunately they weren’t enough. I think maybe 250-260 would be really interesting in that situation.”
“As Australians we come to the subcontinent, we know we’re going to get more wickets that favor spin. Subcontinent teams come to Australia and we face bouncing, fast teams, so that’s what happens when we come here. There are a few really low-going, spinning balls, but that’s what cricket is like when you come to the subcontinent.”
But we did our best with the resources we had and unfortunately today it wasn’t enough.”
Peake’s first ball in international cricket came from Arafat and the 19-year-old managed to get his bat down before curling towards the pads and stumps.
There was a tricky boundary as Peake tried to build a partnership with Renshaw, before sitting back and heading for seven to cut off a delivery that was perhaps a little too full for the shot.
With left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann batting at eight, the Aussies certainly had a long tail, so it should have been up to Carey, Inglis, Labuschagne and Green to do something more significant.
Instead they all departed in the space of 34 runs, the last three dematerialising within a six-ball off the 21-year-old Arafat, leaving the game at the mercy of Pakistan.
Varying pace and deftly varying the degree of turn, Arafat beat Inglis on a reverse sweep and then parried Labuschagne’s assertive back-foot forcing attempt. Green, who has unhappy memories of his pre-T20 World Cup trip to Pakistan earlier in the year, was beaten outright by a delivery that turned sharply from outside leg stump to the top.
From there, Australia’s best chance lay in the big partnership between Short and Renshaw, but after reaching a usable 50, Short ventured out of his crease towards Arafat’s first ball of his new spell and was stumped for metres.
Renshaw’s departure came with another fierce delivery, this time from Abrar Ahmed; he too turned and stayed low around the wicket, hitting the stump halfway.
Defending a paltry total, the Australians needed early wickets. Kuhnemann, who replaced Adam Zampa due to neck spasm, and wrist spinner Tanveer Sangha coaxed a ski catch in the deep to put Pakistan 2-49 ahead, but the home team had a good chance after that.
Babar Azam, who was allowed to play at his preferred pace due to low-scoring run chase, was postponed several times. He first took a low catch to Short at short cover off Kuhnemann, only for third umpire Richard Kettleborough to rule against a clean catch.
On 39, Babar was pinned in front of the stumps by the recalled Billy Stanlake, but not by Kumar Dharmasena, and Australia’s review found that the appeal was rejected on the umpire’s call because it was a rare delivery that had just enough bounce to clip the top of the stumps.
Babar had just reached 50 and the total was 136; Short’s charge bounced enough for the striker to make a miscue towards half-back and Kuhnemann caught the ball. This was Australia’s last chance.
From there, a stand between Babar (69) and Ghazi Gori (65) took Pakistan within 25 runs of their target, which was ultimately achieved with over seven overs to spare. Fittingly, it was Arafat who punched a six into the ground to close out the ball.
Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of many books on cricket.Connect with: X.
