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Mitchell Starc's impressive performance earned him the Man of the Match as Australia edged out Pakistan by two wickets in the first ODI in Melbourne on Monday.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Starc expressed his delight at starting the summer positively with the team. "It's always nice to start the summer off on a positive note with the group. Powerplay wickets are always nice. Positive effort with the ball and we got the job done. Saw it swing away a bit there and we were sloppy on the field. We lost too many wickets and put pressure on us again. It's a big summer with the Test series and 5 more white ball games before that," Starc said. Coming to the match, Mohammad Rizwan's white-ball captaincy stint started with a bitter two-wicket defeat in the opening ODI against Australia at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Monday. Cummins was Australia's guiding light, who ensured that his team safely got home when the chase became a nervy affair for his side. Even though Australia set out to chase a paltry total of 204, the Baggy Greens made it hard for themselves in a bid to chase down the target briskly. Matthew Short fell early, and Jake Fraser-McGurk couldn't convert his promising-looking start. Steven Smith and Josh Inglis steadied the nerves with a classic 85-run stand.Haris Rauf, on his return, made his presence felt with a scorching pace to turn the tides in Pakistan's favour. Smith was the first to fall on 44, and Shaheen got the better of Inglis (49). Marnus Labuschagne (16) was outdone by Rauf's sheer pace. On the next ball, he returned to make Glenn Maxwell look out of his wits by extracting extra bounce, forcing him back for a golden duck. Aaron Hardie did well by denying Rauf of his hat-trick and kept Australia's hope of keeping the series alive. Hardie eventually bailed out on 10(19), and Cummins (32*) came in to lead his side to victory. He was cool throughout his outing, infused confidence in his team and ensured that his side walked past the finishing line with more than 16 overs to spare. Earlier in the match, after being put to bat, Pakistan struggled to get out of its Test cricket mindset, and the evidence of it was in the open during the powerplay. Mitchell Starc continued to build upon his scintillating Sheffield Cup performance and made a shot work of Pakistan's top order. The seasoned left-armer bowled a maiden in the first over to set the tone of the first 10 overs. The pressure started to mount up on the opening duo after Pat Cummins didn't give much room to let pressure escape the room. Starc continued to breathe fire from the other end, and debutant Saim Ayub eventually gave up. A grassy surface that was used to its maximum potential by Starc, the young southpaw chopped the ball back into the stumps. Abdullah Shafique quickly followed in the footsteps of his partner after toiling hard under challenging conditions. He tried to leave a shot-length delivery from Starc but forgot to drop his hands, which left the bat tangling. Shafique misjudged the length, which led to the ball being ricocheted off his bat to Josh Inglis' hands. Babar, who got off to a brisk start, eventually slowed down, with Rizwan holding the other end. The slow-paced 39-run partnership met its bitter end after Zampa cleaned up Babar (37) by luring him to misread the line. Kamran Ghulam (5) failed to make much of an impact on his debut. Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha tried to spark life in Pakistan's frailing batting unit, but eventually, it was up to no avail. With Pakistan stuck in a dire situation, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah proved to be crucial read-guards for the visitors. The tail-enders chipped in with valuable contributions to propel Pakistan to a competitive score. Shaheen opened up his arms and smashed 24 in just 19 deliveries. On the other hand, Naseem had a much more significant impact with his 40 in 39 deliveries. Their efforts powered Pakistan to 203 in 46.4 overs. (ANI)
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