Imam-ul-Haq after a century in victory:
“Thanks to almighty Allah and my parents. It’s just a process. I know my game. I just want to back myself. I worked really hard for this and it feels really special when all these things happen. It all comes down to self-belief. We knew we could chase that. Once you get into the middle overs, we had plans that one has to get through the overs. Luckily I and Babs got rid of the overs.
We thought if we can stay there and chase it, alhamdulillah we were lucky today. There’s always a margin for improvement for every batsman. I really appreciate all the criticism. We need to work more on strike rate but we really focus on the hurdle and on the management and what is important for us. We know in white-ball cricket if you get to set, you get runs quickly and that was the best example today. We wanted to back ourselves and thank God we were very successful today.
Everybody knows our friendship since about 2009. We know each other’s games very well. We really back each other and have that belief that we can win matches. If you play so much cricket, you know each other’s weaknesses and strengths and that helps. We really needed that win for the team to boost up. They’re a really good batting and fielding side. The day after tomorrow is going to be a good match.”
Pakistan captain Babar Azam is named Player of the Match.
Australia captain Aaron Finch:
“I think that opening partnership set the foundation for the game for Pakistan. When you’re 100 for 0 down, it allows the rest of the guys to play free and Babar came in and played an unbelievable knock. I thought 350 [sic 348] was a good score but not to be. Less dew tonight than there was the other night. The wicket played very well throughout the night.
It was a beautiful one-day wicket. I thought we did quite well with the ball. There were just some times when Pakistan took the risks and they came off, which can happen in one-day cricket. When you’ve only got four players out in the middle overs of the game against some good players with a lot of options, it can be very hard to keep them on strike for a period of time and cut down the boundaries. We tried very hard. It was just not to be tonight.”
Pakistan vs Australia 2nd ODI Highlights today, Thursday 31-3-2022. 2nd ODI (D/N), Australia tour of Pakistan from Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.
Form guide
Last five completed Tests, the most recent first
Pakistan: LLLLW
Australia: WWLWL
Toss: Babar won the toss and Pakistan will bat second.
Pakistan team: 1 Fakhar Zaman, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Babar Azam (capt), 4 Mohammad Rizwan, 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Iftikhar Ahmed, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Mohammad Wasim, 10 Zahid Mehmood, 11 Haris Rauf.
Australia team: 1 Aaron Finch (capt), 2 Travis Head, 3 Ben McDermott, 4 Marnus Labuschagne, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Cameron Green, 8 Sean Abbott, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Mitchell Swepson, 11 Adam Zampa.
Head to head
Total ODI’s Played: 105
Pakistan won: 32
Australia won: 69
Match Timings: 10:00 GMT | 15:00 Local
Umpires – Ahsan Raza, Aleem Dar
TV Umpires – Asif Yaqoob
Match Referee – Muhammad Javed
Reserve Umpire – Rashid Riaz
Match number – ODI no. 4380
