Australia continued to exercise dominance over Pakistan by securing its 27th victory in 28 completed matches at home across all formats. The latest edition of their impressive tally was a narrow 2-wicket win with 99 balls to spare.

Despite losing the opening duo, Steven Smith and Josh Inglis eased the nerves in the camp by forging an 85-run partnership. However, Pakistan found its way back into the game with an unexpected surge from Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi.

The duo combined to remove the set batter-pair, which paved the way for an unforeseen comeback. Rauf had enough pace in himself to extract the extra bounce, which was enough to lure out an edge to send Glenn Maxwell back for a golden duck in the 204-run chase.

Australia found themselves down and out without a single run in five balls and down three wickets. This was the position when Pakistan thought of stamping its authority and claiming a stake at victory.

“We were all trying our best, whether in the field or with the ball. We had a plan to bowl short from my end. We had success; we took a few wickets this way,” Rauf said after the game, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.

In the end, Pakistan’s sheer resilience to make their way to victory wasn’t enough in front of the composure Pat Cummins held. With an unbeaten 32 off 31 deliveries, Cummins kept a hold on his nerves to see off the chase.

Rauf acknowledged Pakistan’s sloppiness that saw them give away 21 extras in reply to Australia’s four. Rauf also had a part in it after he went too wide towards the leg side, which went away for a four.

“We did give away extras, but when you attack, you have to accept that these things happen. We did make mistakes, and we were a bit untidy. We know these little things make an impact. If you’re a good bowling unit, then you can cover the batters falling 20-30 runs short if you tighten up in the field as well,” Rauf said.

“We could have defended this, and we all tried really hard. The game didn’t go our way, but we gave no quarter in terms of our energy and our effort,” he added.

After going 1-0 down in the three-match series, Pakistan will look to bounce back in the second ODI, which will be played in Adelaide on Friday.

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