CHRISTCHURCH : Australia got the better of Pakistan by seven wickets in a one-sided game in the second 2022 ODI World Cup match for both sides in Mount Maunganui on Tuesday. After restricting Pakistan to a below-par 190 for 6, Australia, the frontrunners for the title, rode Alyssa Healy’s quick half-century to wrap up their second win in a row, with seven wickets and more than 15 overs to spare.
Two years to the day since her 75 in the T20 World Cup final, Healy steered the chase with two 60-plus stands on her way to a 79-ball 72. The first was with her opening partner, Rachael Haynes, who followed up her ODI best of 130 in the previous game with a run-a-ball 34, and the next one was with No. 3 Meg Lanning. Dropped on 8 by Aliya Riaz at midwicket, Healy showed just how dangerous she can be if let off the hook.
Unleashing an array of pulls, her favourite shot, and majestic inside-out lofted drives, and making deft use of her feet against Pakistan’s four-pronged spin attack, Healy added an element of inevitability to the result after being reprieved. With Haynes, whom offspinner Nida Dar dropped off her own bowling when on 26, Healy powered Australia to 50 inside nine overs and past the three-digit mark inside 18.
The run rate didn’t really challenge Australia, and sloppy catching made matters worse for Pakistan, and their 16th straight defeat in an ODI World Cup loomed large as Lanning, too, found fluency after scoring just three off 20 balls. Lanning put her cut to good use to hit a series of fours but it also caused her undoing when she chopped Omaima Sohail on on 35. Sohail later took out Healy just when she looked set to waltz to a hundred.
When Healy fell, Australia need just 38 in 23 overs. Ellyse Perry and Beth Mooney took only another 7.3 overs to overhaul the target, thanks to their unbeaten fourth-wicket stand, and keep Australia’s 13-0 record against Pakistan in ODIs intact.
