Shadab Khan Was 71 Not Out. Pakistan Needed 42 More Off 6 Overs. Then Nathan Ellis Took Two Wickets In One Over And The Whole Thing Fell Apart.

 

At the start of the 45th over, Pakistan needed 42 runs from 36 balls with four wickets remaining. Shadab Khan was on 68. The chase that had looked dead at 78 for 6 — three quick wickets, the crowd silent, the match apparently over — had somehow come alive again. 42 off 36 is not easy. But with Shadab in this kind of form, it was not impossible.

Then Nathan Ellis bowled the 45th over.

Two deliveries. Two wickets. Mohammad Nawaz caught at long-off going for the six that would have brought the equation into single-digit territory. Abrar Ahmed bowled through the gate first ball — a full, straight delivery that Abrar played around, the stumps disturbed, the match effectively decided. Two balls. Two wickets. And Shadab Khan — who had batted for 104 balls and made 71 runs in a cause that looked lost from the moment Pakistan's top order collapsed — was left stranded at the non-striker's end, watching the innings he had constructed so carefully unravel in the space of two deliveries.

Australia won by 41 runs. AUS 231/9. PAK 190 all out in 44 overs. The series is level at 1-1. And on Thursday at Gaddafi Stadium — the same ground where this match was played — everything is decided.

Australia Are Coming To Pakistan Without Their Best Players. Pakistan Have Just Lost A Test Series To Bangladesh. May 30 Cannot Come Soon Enough.

 

In nine days, two cricket teams with completely different problems arrive at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium for the first of three ODIs that both of them desperately need.

Pakistan need it because they have just lost a Test series to Bangladesh. At home. In Sylhet. A result so unexpected, so damaging to the confidence of a team already dealing with questions about their direction and leadership, that captain Shan Masood stood in front of the cameras afterwards and said his side needed to find the "root causes" of their recurring failures. He was not wrong. But finding root causes and fixing them before May 30 are two very different things.

Australia need it because the team arriving in Pakistan is not quite the Australia that won the ODI World Cup. Pat Cummins is in Kolkata finishing the IPL season. Mitchell Starc is in Hyderabad. Josh Hazlewood is in Bengaluru. The fast bowling attack that has made Australia the most feared white-ball team in world cricket for the last three years is scattered across Indian franchise grounds, watching their IPL contracts through to the end.

What arrives on Pakistani soil on May 23 is an Australia squad that Mitchell Marsh will captain — the same Mitchell Marsh who has just finished a brilliant IPL season with Lucknow Super Giants, averaging nearly 50 with the bat at a strike rate of 169. An Australia squad that contains Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Cameron Green, Adam Zampa, and a collection of emerging talents who are being given a chance to make their case for the ODI World Cup squad.

A depleted Australia. A Pakistan side that has just been embarrassed by Bangladesh. Three matches. Two venues. And a series that, on paper, nobody has a clear claim to going in.