There is a sense of excitement in Aussie camp when they arrived in Bengaluru coming off an impressive win over Sri Lanka in Lucknow, a couple of their players knowing a thing or two about the wicket albeit their experience playing for RCB in the IPL. On the other hand, Pakistan have no such luxuries, they are playing in Bengaluru for the first time and coming off a defeat against India in Ahmedabad, they had plenty of things to work at and improve ahead of this big clash against the five-time world champions.

The track at the M Chinnaswamy was a belter as reckoned by Ian Bishop and Shane Watson with short straight boundaries, win the toss and bat first put runs of the board, it’s a world Cup game you need runs on the board to put the opposition under pressure.

It’s toss time and the coin comes down in favour of Pakistan and they decided to bowl first,expecting dew to come in under lights which could make it easy for them to chase.

The first couple of overs were really good from Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali, Aussie openers David Warner and Mitchell Marsh were cautious to start with and once they’ve assessed the pitch, they teed off, particularly Warner who was severe on anything full, he did offer a chance, top edging one off Shaheen Afridi trying to pull, only for Usama Mir to put down a sitter and then there’s no looking back, both Warner and Marsh punished anything short and full enroute to their hundreds and putting on 259 for the first wicket,an outstanding performance, the Aussie middle and lower order crumbled trying to score too many runs and Australia ended up with 367/9, it was a good total but the way their openers played, it felt a little short.

Pakistan’s chase got off to a flier as Abdullah Shafique and Imam ul Haq pounced on anything loose especially from Mitch Starc who looked a bit off color tonight, the openers put on 134 for the first wicket, they looked on course to chase the total with so much of experience and fire power in their tank. It took all rounder Marcus Stoinis to break the opening partnership, he took both the openers and put Pakistan in a spot of bother. The captain, the most experienced in the side Babar Azam continued his poor run in the tournament managing just 18 and from then on it was Australia’s game, in form batsman Mohammad Rizwan played his way to 46 but he lacked support from the other end, Iftikhaar Ahmed smashed 3 sixes but was picked out by Zampa, the pick of the Aussie bowlers. The leg spinner in his next over prized out Rizwan, the game literally done and dusted. Mohammad Nawaz and Hasan Ali played a couple of decent strokes but they were only delaying the inevitable. Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins picks up a wicket each in the end to close the Pakistan innings and it’s a victory by 62 runs,still a big margin considering how competitive the tournament is going to be. Australia move up to 4th position in the points table while Pakistan slip to No. 5. Australians will be elated with this and this is going to sting Pakistan for a while, they lost 2 in 2 after having started the tournament well.

So, what’s next? Australia move up to Delhi to play Netherlands who were confident after thrashing South Africa and Pakistan go down further south to Chennai to play a high flying Afghanistan. It’s going to be a battle of Afghanistan’s spinners vs Pakistan batsmen.

We have a double header tomorrow, Netherlands play Sri Lanka at Lucknow and South Africa play England in Mumbai,will bring you the post match analysis of two games tomorrow

I’m absolutely delighted to be able to bring this to you, hope you have a good read. Until next time, good bye and good day.