Australia beat Pakistan by 62 runs in a high-scoring World Cup group game on Friday to get their campaign back on track with a second straight win thanks to centuries from their opening pair of David Warner and Mitchell Marsh.
Pakistan won the toss and put Australia in to bat but skipper Babar Azam’s hopes of taking early wickets quickly evaporated when Warner (163) and Marsh (121) went all guns blazing to put on a 259-run stand.
But the rest of Australia’s batting order collapsed with the last six wickets falling for 38 runs while Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi finished with 5-54.
In response, Pakistan’s Abdullah Shafique (64) and Imam-ul-Haq (70) laid the platform for the chase with a 134-run opening partnership but the rest of the top order failed to build on promising starts as they were bundled out for 305.
Spinner Adam Zampa was the pick of the Australia bowlers as he cleaned up the middle order to finish with figures of 4-53 to move Australia up to fourth -- level with fifth-placed Pakistan on four points but with a better net run rate.
