Amazing Beth Mooney saves Australia against Pakistan

Beth Mooney played one of the best knocks of her career as Australia recovered from a parlous situation to thrash Pakistan by 107 runs in Colombo on Wednesday (October 8).

When most of Australia’s big names were asked to bat first, they failed to fire again. For the second successive match in the ongoing World Cup, Australia suffered a collapse. After being reduced to 128/5 against New Zealand, Australia were reeling at 76/7 in the 22nd over against Pakistan.

Captain Alyssa Healy looked in good form as she crossed three boundaries in quick succession before departing for 20. The likes of Phoebe Litchfield (10), Ellyse Perry (5), Annabel Sutherland (1), Talia McGrath (5), and last-match captain Ashley Gardner (1) were unable to score big goals either as Australia found themselves in all sorts of trouble.

As for Pakistan, their Gazelle machines have done the damage. Nashra Sandhu picked up three wickets while Ramin Shamim took two wickets. Captain Fatima Sana also got two wickets.

Read also: “Abhishek Sharma won’t even survive 6 balls from me” – Pakistan player’s open challenge

Pakistan has grabbed the Australians by the neck

At 78/7, Australia were looking to bowl out with a modest total. However, Beth Mooney had other ideas. While most of her teammates were struggling to get going on the difficult pitch, she pulled off one of the best World Cup strokes ever to rescue her team.

She scored 109 runs as Australia went on to post a tough total of 221/9 in the allotted 50 overs. She has received good support from the likes of Kim Garth and Alana King. Mooney and Garth added 39 runs for the eighth wicket to stop the rot. While Garth scored only 11 runs, she managed to bowl 47 balls.

This was followed by a decisive 106-run partnership between Mooney and King. The partnership ended on the last ball of the innings when Mooney was dismissed. King, on the other hand, remained unbeaten with 51 off 49 balls.

The duo raised the pot just in time to push their team to a total of +220. King, who was hitting 16 off 34 balls at one stage, hit three sixes to register her maiden international fifty off just 46 balls. Australia scored 53 runs in the last four overs to end their innings strongly.

Australia crushes Pakistan with the ball:

While Australia managed to score 221 runs, Pakistan still have a chance to register their first ever win over them in the 50-over format. However, it did not take Australia long to end those hopes. Garth and Megan Shutt blew away Pakistan’s top order in no time as the Women in Green found themselves reeling at 49/6 inside 13 overs.

They were eventually bowled out for just 114 runs in 36.3 overs. Sidra Amin (35) was the only Pakistani batsman to cross the 20-run mark with the bat. For Australia, Garth took 3 wickets while Shute and Sutherland both took 1 wicket.

Australia vs pakistan summary scores

Australia 221-9 (50 overs): Beth Mooney 109 (114), Alana King 51* (49); Sundu Bulletin 3-37

Pakistan 114 (36.3 overs): Sidra Amin 35 (52); Kim Garth 3-14

a result: Australia won by 107 runs