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Matthew Wade's Maiden Century Saved Australia In First ODI Against Pakistan

James Faulkner also starred in the bowling attack.
The Aussie wicket keeper scored his maiden century in the first ODI match against Pakistan on Friday.
Bradley Kanaris via Getty Images
The Aussie wicket keeper scored his maiden century in the first ODI match against Pakistan on Friday.

With a shaky start under a sizzling sun, Australia's opening of the first One Day International (ODI) match against Pakistan at the Gabba on Friday didn't look great from the get-go but a maiden ton and some bowling magic saw the Aussies get up with a 92-run victory over the visitors.

After David Warner went for 7, the skipper Steve Smith fell for a duck and the hype behind debutante Chris Lynn only saw him reach 16, the Aussies were left at 5/78 in Brisbane after just 16 overs.

And then a familiar ODI face in Glenn Maxwell and wicket keeper Matthew Wade stepped to the crease and the tide slowly started to turn.

With an 82-run partnership, the pair managed to put the pressure back on to Pakistan but in the end, it was Wade's day.

With his maiden century in an ODI match, Wade outlasted Maxwell, who scored 80, as well as James Faulkner, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc who managed to score 30 runs between them.

The keeper stayed in the centre right until the very end, helping Australia to a healthy score of 9/268 after 50 overs and leaving Pakistan looking for answers before heading in to bat.

With the sides then swapped, it's safe to say if the Aussies looked shaky in their innings, Pakistan were pretty much floored in theirs after some James Faulkner mastery with the ball saw him take four wickets.

The Pakistani captain Azhar Ali fell for just 24, Sharjeel Khan for 18 and Mohammad Hafeez for 4 at the hands of Faulkner before Aussie quicks Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins took over and it was all but over.

Starc and Cummins took another five wickets between them and Mitchell Marsh added to the damage with a wicket of his own before the visitors were bowled out for just 176 after 42 overs.

The ODI series now heads to the MCG in Melbourne on Sunday for the next match between the two nations.

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