Australian captain Michael Clarke said he was pleased with his team's show of character to level the five-match one-day series against Pakistan, and targeted wins in the remaining fixtures. "We were under pressure after losing the first game, but it's great that my team stepped up to win the very next game," said Clarke after Australia took the second match by six wickets here on Friday.
Having lost the first fixture of the series by four wickets on Wednesday, Australia Friday limited Pakistan to a modest total of 207 before completing a successful run-chase with almost five overs to spare.
Returning all-rounder Andrew Symonds took two cheap wickets and then hit a match-winning 58 to help Australia level the series 1-1. Clarke was also happy to hear rival captain Younus Khan assert that Australia is still the world's top team.
"That's a real compliment, especially from the other team's captain. For us it's about continuing to play good cricket, we want to win every game no matter what form we are in," said Clarke, standing in for regular captain Ricky Ponting who was rested for this series.
The Australian selectors also rested star batsman Michael Hussey and fast-bowler Mitchell Johnston for this tour. "We can take a lot of positives from this win," said Clarke, who admitted his team was "under pressure" after losing the first match off the back of one-day defeats in South Africa.
"We lost the first match, the wicket is difficult and helping spin yet we stood up," he said. "We got the result we wanted and it's now another three matches so we must continue to improve." Clarke praised his team's willingness to learn from mistakes.
Younus singled out a lack of big partnerships as a factor in his team's low score. "The key was partnerships, we had just one," said Younus who added 53 for the second wicket with opener Salman Butt, who top-scored with 57.
"We did not bat as per our plans and it was never enough (against) the world's top team." "Australia is still the best team in the world so we knew they would come down hard on us. "We need to improve in the next three games if we want to win the series," said Younus. The remaining three matches will be played in Abu Dhabi on April 27, May 1 and 3. The two teams will also play a Twenty20 match in Dubai on May 7.
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Scoreboard Pakistan
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Salman Butt c Symonds b Hauritz 57
Ahmed Shahzad run out 4
Younus Khan c Haddin b Laughlin 28
Shoaib Malik c Haddin b Hauritz 7
Misbah-ul-Haq c Hussey b Hauritz 12
Shahid Afridi c Haddin b Hopes 41
Kamran Akaml c Hussey b Hopes 19
Umar Gul c Hauritz b Symonds 10
Shoaib Akhtar c Clarke b Symonds 25
Rao Iftikhar not out 1
Saeed Ajmal run out 0
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Extras: (lb2, nb1) 3
Total: 207
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Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Shahzad), 2-58 (Younus), 3-71 (Malik), 4-103 (Haq), 5-122 (Butt), 6-161 (Akmal), 7-176 (Afridi), 8-206 (Gul), 9-206 (Akhtar)
Bowling: Bracken 8.2-1-24-0, Bollinger 10-1-26-0 (1nb), Hopes 7-0-45-2, Hauritz 10-1-41-3, Laughlin 9-0-57-1, Symonds 2-0-12-2
Overs: 46.2.
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Australia:
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B. Haddin b Gul 8
J. Hopes lbw b Afridi 48
S. Watson c Haq b Ajmal 30
M. Clarke not out 39
A. Symonds b Afridi 58
C. Ferguson not out 10
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Extras: (lb4, nb3, w8) 15
Total: (for four wickets) 208
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Did not bat: D. Hussey, N. Hauritz, N. Bracken, D. Bollinger
Fall of wickets: 1-16 (Haddin), 2-93 (Watson), 3-93 (Hopes), 4-183 (Symonds)
Bowling: Akhtar 7-1-32-0 (2w, 1nb), Gul 10-0-51-1 (1nb), Iftikhar 9-0-32-0, Afridi 10-0-38-2 (1w), Ajmal 7-0-37-1 (5w), Malik 2.1-0-14-0 (1nb)
Overs: 45.1
Result: Australia won by six wickets
Toss: Pakistan
Umpires: Billy Bowden (NZL), Asad Rauf (PAK)
TV umpire: Zamir Haider (PAK)
Match-referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL).
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