Australia vs Pakistan, first ODI: Captain Cummins leads hosts to nervy win

Cummins’s all-round performance took Australia to a two-wicket win in Melbourne for a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.

Australia’s captain Pat Cummins has guided his team home to a tense two-wicket win over Pakistan after a brief wobble in their run-chase in the first one-day international (ODI) in Melbourne.

Cummins scored 32 crucial runs and took two wickets as Australia chased 204 despite a late Pakistani fightback, and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series on Monday.

Pakistan were dismissed for 203 in 46.4 overs after being asked to bat first as their batters failed to cope with the Australian pace attack on a fast and bouncy pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Australia, who won the ODI World Cup in India in 2023, were coasting towards the target with Steve Smith and Josh Inglis at the crease at 113-2 after 16.2 overs.

However, the visitors posed a brief threat to the world champions when their fast bowlers combined to take five wickets for 45 runs and opened up the match.

Cummins, though, was calm while wickets fell around him and hit four boundaries as he completed the chase with fellow fast bowler Mitchell Starc.

The captain, playing his first ODI since the World Cup final, burnished his record of guiding Australia to victory from positions of peril, having scored the winning runs during the Ashes Test at Edgbaston last year and twice hung tough with the bat at the World Cup.

“Tonight we got it done. I always much prefer sitting in the changing room but a wonderful match,” Cummins said afterwards.

“It got a bit tighter than we would have liked in the end.”

The ground was only a quarter full with a crowd of 25,800, but Rauf had Pakistan fans jumping in the terraces with a sizzling spell that included dismissing Marnus Labuschagne (16) and Glenn Maxwell (0) in successive deliveries.