Bowlers choke Pakistan before Healy powers Australia to one-sided win

Australia got the better of Pakistan by seven wickets in a one-sided game in the second 2022 ODI World Cup match for both sides in Mount Maunganui on Tuesday. After restricting Pakistan to a below-par 190 for 6, Australia, the frontrunners for the title, rode Alyssa Healy's quick half-century to wrap up their second win in a row, with seven wickets and more than 15 overs to spare.

Two years to the day since her 75 in the T20 World Cup final, Healy steered the chase with two 60-plus stands on her way to a 79-ball 72. The first was with her opening partner, Rachael Haynes, who followed up her ODI best of 130 in the previous game with a run-a-ball 34, and the next one was with No. 3 Meg Lanning. Dropped on 8 by Aliya Riaz at midwicket, Healy showed just how dangerous she can be if let off the hook.

Unleashing an array of pulls, her favourite shot, and majestic inside-out lofted drives, and making deft use of her feet against Pakistan's four-pronged spin attack, Healy added an element of inevitability to the result after being reprieved. With Haynes, whom offspinner Nida Dar dropped off her own bowling when on 26, Healy powered Australia to 50 inside nine overs and past the three-digit mark inside 18.

The run rate didn't really challenge Australia, and sloppy catching made matters worse for Pakistan, and their 16th straight defeat in an ODI World Cup loomed large as Lanning, too, found fluency after scoring just three off 20 balls. Lanning put her cut to good use to hit a series of fours but it also caused her undoing when she chopped Omaima Sohail on on 35. Sohail later took out Healy just when she looked set to waltz to a hundred.

When Healy fell, Australia need just 38 in 23 overs. Ellyse Perry and Beth Mooney took only another 7.3 overs to overhaul the target, thanks to their unbeaten fourth-wicket stand, and keep Australia's 13-0 record against Pakistan in ODIs intact.

In the first half, Pakistan's highest stand in ODI World Cups, between Bismah Maroof and Riaz, and Maroof's unbeaten 78, were the highlights. But a painfully slow scoring rate - with 186 dots - meant Australia's decision to bowl, and play three spinners, stood vindicated. It came to Maroof and Riaz to breathe life into Pakistan's innings after they were 44 for 4 in under 13 overs.

At the start, Pakistan crawled to 37 for 2 in the spin-less powerplay, though they found a few boundaries early on. Opener Nahida Khan, replacing the injured Javeria Khan, perished to the wide lone slip in the third over as Megan Schutt's late movement had her reaching for a wide delivery. Perry, too, shaped a few away, including the first ball of her second over, which Sidra Ameen edged to Lanning at first slip. Schutt's swing in the powerplay was recorded at an impressive 2.4 degrees and Perry's at 1.9 degrees.

Alana King provided the first glimpse of spin, and got an orthodox, tossed-up legbreak to crash into Sohail's stumps. Jess Jonassen and Amanda-Jade Wellington came on soon after as Australia applied the choke, Wellington also taking out Dar.

At that stage, little came by way of runs and wickets fell in quick succession for Pakistan, but Maroof tucked one away to the midwicket boundary for her first four and added a second to her tally with a glorious square-drive. She appeared reluctant to go aerial early on and brought up her 15th ODI half-century, off 96 balls.

For a player returning to lead her team only six months after childbirth, the celebration of the milestone was fitting: bat on ground, arms folded in a cradle, out came the rock-the-baby gesture as Maroof turned towards the dressing room where her mother and daughter acknowledged her effort.

In Riaz, Maroof found a partner to rebuild with. Both batters struck their maiden fifties in ODI World Cups, the first instance of two Pakistani women making half-centuries in a 50-over innings. Riaz got to hers with a powerful four to fine leg off Schutt on the 107th ball of her innings, and now has the joint-second-highest ODI fifties for a batter at No. 6 or lower. She fell shortly after reaching the milestone, though, the 189-ball fifth-wicket stand ended by Nicola Carey.

Pakistan were going at just over three an over at the 45th over before Carey's eighth, the 47th of the innings, went for a few. Maroof guided a chest-high no-ball for four over short third man to kick-off the 14-run over. Fatima Sana did her bit with a 15-ball 14 at No. 7. She perished in the penultimate over as Healy snaffled her bottom edge off an attempted sweep, off King's bowling. Diana Baig's 7 off four balls and Maroof's cover-driven four off the final ball of the innings helped Pakistan to 190 for 6.