Century maker happy to take his chances
BEN Mcdermott scored his maiden ODI century, but it was not enough — nor was Australia’s 8-348 — as Babar Azam and Imam-ul-haq responded with hundreds of their own to give Pakistan an impressive victory.
Mcdermott said that, if it wasn’t for Covid striking down Josh Inglis, he would not be in this team.
“I’m obviously not probably in the best team in Australia at the moment and probably wasn’t starting off,” Mcdermott said after the match in Lahore on Thursday.
“But fortunately for me, I got my opportunities through Covid and the unfortunate Mitch Marsh injury as well.
“So, I probably wasn’t even in the team that was going to start but yeah, that was it, it was building depth and it probably wasn’t our best team.
“Obviously, we were going to come to compete and we won the first game but it didn’t go our way tonight, but we come again in a couple of days.
“But yeah, definitely feels that way, I suppose. It’s not probably our best team. But there’s a few guys resting after a pretty long summer and a pretty long Test series.
“I’d love to be in the best team but I probably wasn’t in the starting 11 to begin with and then got up due to the injuries, Mitch Marsh and Covid cases.
“So, yeah, really good to get an opportunity and even better when you probably weren’t supposed to be in the 11 but I take these opportunities when they come.”
Babar and Iman’s innings contributed to the team’s highest run chase on a wicket where batsmen dominated and bowlers struggled.
Pakistan chased down the total with six balls to spare to levelled the three-match series oneall. Babar was out on 114 from 82 deliveries but, by that stage, Pakistan was 3-309 in the 45th over and in control on a wicket in which the bounce was true and spin not sighted. Adam Zampa took 2-71 and Nathan Ellis 1-69, the rest had no fun.