World Cup 2023: Top five moments from Australia vs Pakistan as Pat Cummins and Co clinch 62-run win

Pakistan on Friday stumbled to yet another defeat in the 2023 Cricket World Cup with Australia far too strong for them on Friday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

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Centuries from David Warner and Mitchell Marsh, and a four-fer from Adam Zampa scripted the Aussies’ 62-run win, their second victory in four games.

Earlier, after being put into bat, tons from Warner and Marsh, at the top of the order, had led Pat Cummins’ side to 367/9.

In reply, the Men in Green got off to a confident note, with Abdullah Shafique (64) and Imam-ul-Haq (70) forging a 134-run stand for the opening wicket, but Pakistan soon lost the plot after the duo’s dismissals.

This win would give Australia a morale booster as they jumped to fourth place in the points table, despite still having a negative NRR (-0.193).

There were a quite a few moments that defined the contest, and it could have gone either way at one stage. Let’s look at some of the big moments from Australia vs Pakistan:

Usama Mir’s costly drop

While both Warner and Marsh went onto score memorable tons, things could have been a lot different early on in the contest.

Warner could have been dismissed for a score as low as 10, had Usama Mir completed a catch. In the third ball of the fifth over, Shaheen unleashed a short of a length ball that went wide outside off. Warner went for an uncontrolled pull shot, and almost gifted his wicket to Usama Mir at mid-on, but the latter eventually dropped it.

Usama Mir Drop the Catch of David Warner,
hard luck @iShaheenAfridi @babarazam258 #PakvsAusLIVE #wcc2023 #fypシ゚viralシ pic.twitter.com/vVtPgJeok4

— shahzeb (@ShahzebChanna5) October 20, 2023

Usama had time to settle down and comfortably catch it, but he put his hands on his chest and eventually ended up failing to latch on.

Usama, and Pakistan, paid for the drop, as Warner went onto amass 163 off 124 balls, getting to his 21^st ODI century.

Shaheen Afridi makes it count

At one stage, Australia were cruising that a total of 400 or more looked very realistic. However, Australia started losing wickets at regular intervals following the dismissal of Marsh and Glenn Maxwell, who were dismissed in the 34^th over.

Shaheen Afridi closes out the Australian innings in style, picking up the 2nd five wicket haul of #CWC23