AUSTRALIA v PAKISTAN

At Sydney, February 20 (day/night). Pakistan won by 2 runs. Toss: Pakistan. With the result of no importance to the placings in the qualifying table, both sides provided entertaining cricket in damp conditions. Border, the Australian captain, was playing in his 200th one-day international, becoming the first to reach this milestone. Although the Pakistan innings began under heavy cloud cover and in high humidity, this did not prevent Saeed Anwar from playing some superb attacking strokes, including a six which failed narrowly to clear the roof of the Ladies' Stand. Salim Malik and Imran then added 87 for the third wicket in 75 minutes. Moody anchored the Australian reply, being sixth out after scoring 74 from 109 balls. O'Donnell hit out at the end, but the decisive influence on the result was Imran, who bowled a fourteen-minute maiden over in which three wickets fell. After the match, the five judges of the Man of the Match award stated publicly that they would have given it to Imran had they not been under pressure from Channel Nine to name the player before the match was over. At the time of their early decision, O'Donnell had looked like winning the game for Australia.

Man of the match: S. P. O'Donnell.

Attendance: 24,581.