PAKISTAN PO WER PAST POOR A USSIES

PAKISTAN took the pace off the ball and the puff out of Australia to level the one- day series with a drought- breaking victory at the MCG last night.

The tourists used 24 overs of spin to help roll the Aussies for just 220 before the home team’s bowlers, minus a specialist spinner, were pushed around by Pakistan’s batsmen who reeled in the total with six wickets to spare.

It was Pakistan’s first tour victory against the Aussies in four matches and reward for a unit which has fought hard to turn the screws on the one- day team wash.

The win was also Pakistan’s first one- day victory at the MCG since 1997 and the first against Australia, in Australia, since 2005.

Dropped at second slip by Aussie skipper Steve Smith in the opening over, stand- in Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez led from the front with a game- high 72.

The visitors bettered the Aussie boundary count too ( 24 to 17) against a near all- pace attack and took 23 off the 2.4 overs part- time spinner Travis Head bowled.

Two quick wickets, including Hafeez, put a spring in the Aussie step after a Test white- with 80 runs still to get and the potential for a Pakistani collapse everpresent.

But the tourists would not fall over. They lost just one more wicket in a controlled run- chase and will take some much needed momentum into game three in Perth on Friday.

On the same day Australian selectors announced the squad being sent to tame the rampant spinners in India, the Aussie batsmen were brought undone by a trio of slow bowlers who barely turned the ball.

Imad Wasim, Shoaib Malik and part- timer Hafeez took three wickets between them, but tripled that in appeals as they provided constant trouble for the Aussie batsmen who couldn’t get going against them.

Even captain Smith ( 60) and Matthew Wade ( 35), the lone Aussie resistance to the Pakistani stranglehold, were bowled by Wasim and Mailk respectively.

Glenn Maxwell, picked for the tour of India in part due to his capacity to play spin, was rolled by a straight one from excitable left- arm tweaker Wasim who gave him a send- off to boot.

For the second straight match the home team lost its first five wickets inside 30 overs and Australia was bowled out batting first for the second time in seven games.

The last time was in South Africa last October when Australia was demolished for just 167 in the fourth game of a 5- 0 series drubbing.

The early morning elation of a call up to the Test squad failed to fire up promoted slugger Mitch Marsh when he was dismissed for a golden duck.

National selectors declared Marsh, who has two ducks in his past three one- day innings, a bowling allrounder when they added him and Maxwell to the Test squad for the tour of India.

But former Test skipper Mark Taylor said Marsh should have been at number eight.