Australia takes ODI series against Pakistan with 86-run win at SCG thanks to David Warner century
Updated
A five-star performance from David Warner has fired Australia to a heady 86-run ODI win over Pakistan in Sydney and set up an unassailable 3-1 series lead.
The tourists were set a monster target of 354 at the SCG after a swashbuckling ton from Warner (130), and half-centuries from Glenn Maxwell (78) and Travis Head (51).
In front of a crowd of 31,979, a wasteful Pakistan then went down swinging to be all out for 267 off 43.5 overs in a reply that involved two classic Warner catches in the outfield.
The final match of a miserable Australian tour for Pakistan is now an Australia Day dead rubber in Adelaide.
Opener Sharjeel Khan did his best Warner impression with a quickfire 74 off 47 balls to launch Pakistan in their pursuit of what would've been a record chase at the ground.
And even when Australia grassed consecutive Shoaib Malik chances in the 35th over, the visitors were five runs ahead of Australia's 1-196 at the same point in the innings.
But poor batting and clutch fielding left Pakistan ruing starts for four batsmen that weren't converted into the big innings needed to turn the Adelaide ODI into a series decider.
Khan, Malik (41), Babar Azam (31) and Mohammad Hafeez (40) failed to kick on after getting their eye in, and all were guilty of throwing away their wickets in the deep.
Sydney local Warner caught both Khan and Malik with running efforts near the boundary, the second of which included a spectacular lunging dive to give Head his second wicket (2-66).
Adam Zampa, playing in his first match of the series, ended the night with 3-55 off his 10 overs.
Earlier, some heavy hitting from Australia's batsmen helped them post 6-353 from their 50 overs - the fifth highest ODI total at the Moore Park venue.
Warner provided the early fireworks to register his first century of the series before being brought undone on 130 off 119 balls, including 11 boundaries and two maximums.
Momentum changed temporarily when Steve Smith fell two balls later (49), however Glenn Maxwell and Head wasted no time re-igniting the flurry of runs to push the total towards 350.
Head pummelled 51 off 36, while Maxwell entertained the Sydney faithful with his imaginative free-swinging on his way to a 44-ball knock of 78.
Together with Warner, the threesome combined for all seven of the team's sixes.
Hassan Ali was the pick of the Pakistan attack, having claimed five of the six wickets to finish with 5-52 off his 10 overs.
Australia has now won eight series in succession against Pakistan, a winning streak dating back to 2002.
AAP
Topics: cricket, sport, sydney-2000, nsw, australia, pakistan
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