Aaron Finch fired a century as Australia beat Pakistan by eight wickets in the first one-day international in Sharjah on Friday. Captain Finch scored 116 to help Australia chase down a target of 281 in 49 overs. Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb were both not out with respective scores of 91 and 30. Pakistan's total of 280-5 was built around by a maiden century from Haris Sohail, who shot 101 not out. The 30-year-old made his comeback match after returning home from the South Africa tour with a knee injury last year, lifting Pakistan to a fighting total in their 50 overs. Pakistan, having rested six of their key players including regular skipper Sarfraz Ahmed to give them break before the World Cup 2019, won the toss on a flat Sharjah stadium pitch. Haris, who reached 1,000 runs in his 27th one-day international when on 40, added 98 for the third wicket with Umar Akmal who made 50-ball 49 in his first ...

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur is confident new players will grab the opportunity to fill a few available places for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 through the five-match ODI series against Australia starting in Sharjah on Friday. Pakistan have rested six players – captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shadab Khan – to provide an opportunity to the other leading performers to stake a claim for the tournament to be held in England and Wales from May 30 to July 14. Mickey believed it was a well-thought out and sensible decision. “We designed this series for our players for the simple fact that we want to test our best bench players,” said Mickey. “There was planning, sometimes people think that its ad hoc. We want to test our bench-strength so that we could have a look at our final squad and combination. We know our major players for ...