Pakistan won the ODI series 2-1 by defeating Australia by 9 wickets in the last and deciding match of the three-match ODI series played in Lahore. Captain Babar Azam shone again in Pakistan’s victory and he scored a second century back to back. During this, Imam-ul-Haq supported him by playing an innings of 89 runs. Batting first, Australia had set a target of 211 runs in front of Pakistan, which the team achieved in 37.5 overs. Pakistan also avenged the 0-1 loss to Australia in the Test series by winning the ODI series.
With this century Babar Azam has become the second batsman to score the most centuries in ODI cricket for Pakistan. He has overtaken former batsman Mohammad Yousuf, who had 15 centuries in this format. Now only Saeed Anwar is ahead of Babar, who scored 20 centuries during his career.
Electing to bat after winning the toss, the start of the Australian team was not good. On the very first ball of the match, Shaheen Afridi gave the first breakthrough by bowling Travis Head. After this, Hasir Rauf showed the way to the pavilion to captain Aaron Finch (0) and Labushen (4). After the initial setbacks, the Australian team could not recover and kept losing wickets at frequent intervals. For Australia, wicket-keeper batsman Alex Carey played the highest innings of 56 runs and was supported by Sean Abbott with 49 runs. The entire team of Australia was bundled out for 210 runs in 41.5 overs.
For Pakistan, Haris Raup and Mohammad Wasim Jr took three wickets each, while Shaheen Afridi got two successes.
Chasing the target of 211 runs, Nathan Ellis gave the first blow to the hosts by dismissing Fakhar Zaman for a personal score of 17. After this, captain Babar Azam, who came to bat, scored 105 runs in 115 balls with the help of 12 fours, while Imam scored 89 runs in 100 balls with the help of 6 fours and 1 six. Both the batsmen did not give second wicket to the visiting team till the end.
Now the only T20 match between Pakistan and Australia is to be played on 5 April.