ICC World Cup: Warner, Marsh bludgeon tons to put Australia’s Cup campaign on track

Pakistan got off to a cultured century opening stand of their own between Imam Ul-Haq (70) and Abdullah Shafique (64), but the sheer weight of runs was always going to be too much for a side oddly without an X factor player in this tournament.

Bengaluru: Australia took their World Cup campaign – and Pakistan’s bowlers -- by the scruff of the neck on Friday, powered by a record first-wicket stand and hundreds by both openers, and then saw off a spirited challenge from Babar Azam’s batsmen.

A 62-run win placed the five-time champions on a familiar path to the semi-finals, even if they are still just in fourth spot in the table and only a whisker ahead of Pakistan: They have won two on the trot, look dangerous and have got some of the toughest games out of the way.

David Warner (163) and Mitchell Marsh (121) put on 259 for the first wicket in alarmingly rapid time, bludgeoning 18 sixes and 24 fours between them before Pakistan exerted a modicum of control by getting eight wickets for 104, with spearhead Shaheen Afridi producing a superb late spell to end with 5/54.

The Warner-Marsh partnership was the highest opening stand for Australia in the World Cup, and just one run short of their highest for any wicket. It was the sixth highest partnership in World Cup history.

Pakistan, in response, got off to a cultured century opening stand of their own between Imam Ul-Haq (70) and Abdullah Shafique (64); then a typically busy 46 from Mohammad Rizwan and good hands from the lower middle-order created the illusion that they were in the hunt. But the sheer weight of runs was always going to be too much for a side oddly without an X factor player in this tournament. Leg-spinner Adam Zampa was the pick of the bowlers, keeping his head admirably.

Australia’s early batting dominance was such that for the first 200 balls of their innings, hope sprang in Pakistan hearts just three times.

Off the very first ball of the innings, Shaheen Afridi and his captain opted for an improbable LBW referral against David Warner. It always looked a bad idea, and it looked worse on replay. Then in the fifth over, Warner, on 10, skied the ball to long on, where Usama Mir, all six foot three of him, settled under the easiest of catches – and proceeded to miss the ball entirely. And in the 33rd over, Abdullah Shafique put Warner (now 105) down again at midwicket.

Warner and Marsh reached their hundreds off successive balls, Warner first, off 85 balls and then Marsh off 100.

Marsh, celebrating his 32nd birthday but watching Warner get all the gifts at the other end, produced some of the cleanest hitting of this World Cup, threatening life and limb near the press box with a 90-metre six. The two Aussies were especially severe on Haris Rauf, whose first over went for 24 and first three for 47.