Australia take series; Harris leads the way

Ryan Harris picked up a five wicket haul as the hosts completed another convincing win over Pakistan to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series.

Australia beat Pakistan by 40 runs in the third ODI at Adelaide and now lead the 5-ODI series, 3-0. It was another poor showing from the Pakistani top men, who failed to fire.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat, knowing that they had to put atleast 275 on the board on this batting friendly wicket. They got off to a slow start compared to the previous game but ensured that all their wickets were intact through the Quick start overs. They lost a couple in succession soon after but Shaun Marsh was on top of his game and led their charge with Michael Clarke as the two batted Australia out of a tight spot. The pair added 102 runs for the third wicket and set them up for a strong finish. Michael Hussey came to the party after that and along with Clarke pushed their score to 286 at the end of 50 overs. 94 runs were scored in the Extreme Performance overs, giving them a clear advantage at the halfway mark as reflected on the Castrol Index worm.

Pakistan’s run chase started much like the last game. After losing Kamran Akmal early, they managed to reach 42 at the end of the first Power Play. Things fell apart quickly from that point with the next three wickets falling in a space of 13 runs. Umar Akmal and Fawad Alam put on an 85 run stand for the fifth wicket and the visitors still had an outside chance with Shahid Afridi and Naved-Ul-Hasan still to come. But Akmal and Alam went in quick succession, leaving Afridi too much to do. Afridi and Naved added 58 off 40 balls before Afridi was cleaned up by Harris and it was a matter of time before they were eventually bowled out for 246.

Ryan Harris was the obvious choice for Man of the Match honours with his five wickets that were achieved with a Bowling Efficiency of 349.