Shaheen Afridi achieved an incredible feat on Tuesday, which placed him alongside Pakistan’s legendary ODI captains. In the second Pakistan vs Australia ODI in Lahore, the left-arm fast bowler dismissed Alex Carey on the first delivery of the day.
Against Afridi’s shorter delivery, Carey tried to cut it, but the ball took the inside edge and rolled back onto his stumps. It was a lucky breakthrough. Afridi thus became the third Pakistan skipper to take a wicket with the opening ball of an ODI innings. Before this, Wasim Akram (vs Zimbabwe in Karachi, 1993, Andy Flower) and Waqar Younis (vs England, 2001, Marcus Trescothick) were the only members of the elite club.
Australia ultimately managed 231/9 in 50 overs. In reply, Pakistan too struggled and were reduced to 78/6 by the 17th over.
Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and elected to field first against Australia in the second one-day international on Tuesday. Pakistan leads the three-match series 1-0 after winning the opening game by five wickets at Rawalpindi, where left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas took 5-32 on his ODI debut.
The home team was unchanged, which meant spinners were expected to dominate at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, which also hosts the third game on Thursday.
Depleted Australia has gone with three specialist spinners, including Adam Zampa, who has recovered from the neck spasms which forced him to miss the first ODI. Zampa replaced fast bowler Billy Stanlake.
In the first ODI, Arafat Minhas took five wickets on debut and hit the winning runs for Pakistan to beat an under-strength Australia by five wickets on Saturday.
The 21-year-old left-arm spinner Minhas took 5-32 and became the first Pakistan bowler to pick up five wickets in an ODI debut.
Australia was dismissed for 200 in 44.1 overs on a dry pitch tailor-made for spinners.
Pakistan reached 202-5 in 42.3 overs to lead the three-match series 1-0.