Australia v Pakistan Second ODI Report Card

Featuring not mentioning the s word, hiding one's Kryptonian identity and double misquotes

Not Mentioning The S Word
Grade: C

Off to Adelaide, then, for the second ODI. Pakistan won the toss and, once again, found some Rauf edges on this Australian batting line-up.

I refer, of course, to the great Haris Rauf, who took 5/29 to back up his three wickets (for 67!) in the first ODI. Rauf found edges all over the place - Josh Inglis’s outside edge, Marnus Labuschagne’s outside edge, Aaron Hardie’s outside edge, Pat Cummins’ outside edge. Glenn Maxwell mixed things up a bit, as you’d expect, bottom edging a pull shot into his stumps.

Pick of the wickets? Probably the Marnus one. If only because it meant that we’d seen a Marnus-Harris wicket in this match not too long after a Marcus Harris wicket in the Australia A v India A match over in Melbourne.

Of course, the worst thing from an Australian perspective about the myriad of Rauf edges was that the home side had no viable solution. For if we are to take the wordplay on its own terms, the obvious solution to smoothing out those edges is precisely the one for which it would be too politically fraught to even suggest. (Despite the ongoing presence of David Warner in the commentary box.)

Hiding One’s Kryptonian Identity
Grade: D