Australia vs Pakistan 5th Match Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket 1985 Highlights

Watch the highlights of Australia vs Pakistan 5th Match Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket 1985 - Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket one-day international tournament of the 5th ODI match played between Pakistan and Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne in 24th February 1985.

Half-centuries from Openers Mohsin Khan and Mudassar Nazar before A remarkable excellent swing bowling performance by young Wasim Akram's record-breaking five-for helped to Pakistan stunning 62-run victory over host Australia, despite a fighting knock from Simon O'Donnell's 74* in the fifth match of a Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket match.

* Singlehanded, Wasim Akram, a recent product of a Lahore cricket talent camp who up until a month ago did not own a decent pair of bowling boots, lopped down the top-order of the Australian batting order, finishing with 5/21 from 48 deceptively fast balls.

* Not surprisingly, the lower-order Australians were able to salvage very little from such carnage and, despite a stout contribution from Victorian all-rounder Simon O'Donnell (74 not out), they could squeeze out only 200 runs from 42.3 overs in answer to Pakistan's formidable 50 over innings of 6/262.

* Wasim Akram's 5 for 21 was the best bowling figures for Pakistan in One-day international cricket history, surpassing the previous record of 5 for 44 held by Abdul Qadir against Sri Lanka at Leeds in the 1983 World Cup and the third best bowling figures by any bowler in Australia in ODIs.

Pakistan scored 262-6 in 50 overs with top scorer by Mohsin Khan struck 81 off 109-balls including 5-fours.

Mudassar Nazar scored 69 off 86-balls including 7-fours, Imran Khan cracked a unbeaten 32 off 27-balls included one-six a four with strike rate of 118.52.

Qasim Umar scored 31 off 40-balls including 3-fours and Javed Miandad 19.

Australia best bowler by Simon O'Donnell, Geoff Lawson both took 2-wickets and one for Terry Alderman - Rod McCurdy.


Australia scored 200 for all-out in 42.3 overs with top scorer by Simon O'Donnell cracked a unbeaten 74 off 101-balls including 7-fours.

Wayne Phillips struck 44 off 50-balls including 6-fours and Geoff Lawson 27.

Pakistan best bowler by Wasim Akram 5-21, Imran Khan, Tahir Naqqash and
Mudassar Nazar each took one-wickets.

Wasim Akram named Player of the match for his sensational swing bowling performance to claimed a record-breaking career-best 5-wicket haul for 21-runs in 8-overs including a maiden.

This match reported by Michael Carey (Third Party Reference from The Daily Telegraph)

A REMARKABLE performance by Wasim

Akram, 18, Pakistan's left-arm opening bowler who took Australia's first five wickets in 28 deliveries for 13 runs, helped his side to a 62-run win in Group A of the World Cricket Championship in Melbourne.

This could be classed as the first surprise of the competition, given Pakistan's earlier indifferent form and known weaknesses. It opens up Group A and means that, even if England lose to India in Sydney on 26th February, they are not necessarily out of it.

For that match, England seem certain to be without Chris Cowdrey, whose bruised wrist was still troubling him yesterday.

They are likely to omit a quicker bowler from their only remaining fit 12 players, which ought to mean Neil Foster returning in place of Jonathan Agnew.

Martyn Moxon will definitely play, though whether he, rather than Paul Downton, opens remains to be seen.

Even the selectors appear to be split on this one, though I should hope the logic of having two recognised openers in from the start might seep through to them by 26th February afternoon.

Pakistan's win also owed something to their decision to restore Mudassar to opening (of which more in a moment), and it has long been a simple fact of one-day cricket that opening batsmen have more chance than anyone of building an influential innings.

Moxon was by no means a failure on his solitary one-day appearance in India, making 70 from 131 balls and showing an ability to improvise before the end. There is also much to be said for having one batsman keeping an end going for as much of the innings as posible.

In any case, by elevating Downton England deny themselves his contribution down the order, where he is capable of manuipulating the strike to help a senior partner, as well as scoring crucial runs himself.

Indeed, did he not play a key role in winning two one-day games in India and has that been overlooked already?

More relaxed

That apart, 26th February's game will have little or no relevance to what happened on the subcontinent. As I said at the time, India's display in beating Pakistan in their opening match was unrecognisable in its efficiency in all departments.

They seem to be more relaxed away from the claustrophobic effects of their own huge and demanding crowds.

They have also, at last, got their team selection right The accuracy of bowlers such as Madan Lal, Shastri and Amarnath, at a pace which does not encourage strokes, helped to make them the real world one-day champions two years ago. I fear for England unless they raise their game, especially in the field.

Length and line will be all-important, hence the probable return of Foster, but spinners on both sides could be the match winners.

Sydney has taken spin generously this season, and the pitch used for last weeks washed-out game between West Indies and New Zealand turned on the first day of the. Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Queensland at the weekend.

If England fail on 26th February, they could still reach the semi-finals by beating Pakistan in their last match on Saturday, by virtue of a better scoring rate, though that would depend on Australia following defeat with another one against India.

Pakistan's achievement in making 262 for six after being put in showed the importance of a positive outlook from the start and there was a time, when Mudassar and Mohsin were putting on 141 together in 29 overs, that they seemed cap able of reaching 300 or so.

While Mohsin scored a more orthodox 81, Mudassar latterly clumped the bowling, especially the less experienced McCurdy and McDermott, over the top in a way that Pakistan had not managed against India's more accurate medhum-pacers.

Imran's unbeaten 32 from 27 overs ensured Australia would have to work hard, though Pakistan's problem is the affable nature of their support bowling. Thus Akram's feat, after failing to take a wicket in his only three one-day games, was a huge bonus.

Akram had played in only one first-class match before going on Pakistan's recent tour of New Zealand where his colleagues, discovering he did not own a decent pair of boots, clubbed together to buy him some.

In his first three overs, Akram first yorked Kerr, then clipped Wessels' off stump with a ball that held its line to the left-hander. Then he saw Jones, curiously promoted to No. 3, play on from an attempted square-drive.

Border, pushed on to the back foot, dislodged a bail when his foot just touched the base of his leg stump, and then came Hughes' latest unhappy episode when he failed to get inside the line for at attempted pull and was caught off a cramped, over-ambitious stroke.

Australia were then 42 for five. O'Donnell and Phillips played so well in adding 79 from the next 13 overs that there was much relief when Miandad's diving catch removed the wicketkeeper.

                   

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