Cricket News: Marnus Labuschagne details addressed as Pat Cummins admits unwanted Aussie record

Pat Cummins has lamented one of his team's “worst” performances ever after Australia suffered their heaviest ODI home defeat on Friday evening second game against Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval, where Marnus Labuschagne's fights with the bat this season continued. Labuschagne was one of five Australian batsmen to fall to Pakistan quick Haris Rauf, who took 5-29 to bowl out the home team for 163 after just 35 overs.

In response, Pakistan openers Saim Ayub (82 off 71) and Abdullah Shafique (64 not out) made light work of the paltry total and chased down Australia's target with the loss of just one wicket. Pakistan's openers totaled 137 runs in just 20.1 overs before Adam Zampa took Australia's only wicket of the game, dismissing the impressive Ayub.

However, that was the best thing for the home side as six overs later Pakistan made it all clear and secured victory with a whopping 141 balls remaining. Australia had suffered a nine-wicket defeat at home just three times before – the last defeat came in 1992 when the West Indies won with 69 balls remaining.

Australia also suffered a similar defeat against South Africa in 1992 and again against the West Indies in 1984, but Pakistan's win with 141 balls remaining is by far Australia's worst home defeat. Rauf (5-29) was the main destroyer in Adelaide with his second five-wicket haul in ODIs after dismissing Josh Inglis, Labuschagne, Aaron Hardie and Glenn Maxwell in a devastating spell that saw the Aussies go from 2-79 to 2-79 7-79 collapsed. 129.

Australian openers Matt Short (19) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (13) started brightly again but failed to silence critics of their overconfident batting approach. Short was caught by Babar Azam off the bowling of Shaheen Shah Afridi, who had also caught Fraser-McGurk LBW as the young player tried to smash a ball to the boundary that was probably not meant to be batted.

“It's probably a ball you should defend. That performance probably deserved a bit of respect,” Mark Waugh said on Fox Cricket. “It's a balancing act, isn't it? He will be so frustrated. Sometimes when you see the ball so early you tend to relax. Sometimes that overconfidence can come back to bite you. We’ve all experienced that.” .”

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Top scorers Steve Smith (35) and Josh Inglis (18) were again asked to partner for Australia as they had done in the first game, but Rauf had other ideas. The Pakistan quick first removed Inglis after sending a ball delivery down the leg side into the grateful clutches of wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.

Marnus Labuschagne is once again favorable as the fighting continues

That put Labuschagne in the crease, but for the second successive game the Aussie Test star was undone by Rauf after he had edged Rizwan by just six goals. This season, Labuschagne continued his poor form, having only passed the 50 mark once for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield. The Test star has hit a high of just 22 in his last five innings in red-ball and white-ball cricket and former Australian cricket star Chadd Sayers says his form is in decline ahead of the five-Test series against India in Perth begins, worryingly, November 22nd.

“Harris Rauf again… he just brings a lot of energy. It looked like a good ball, he just left Marnus from a good length and his poor form continues, he hits that ball to Rizwan,” Sayers said in SEN’s coverage. Even at the start of the domestic season he didn't really seem threatening, did he? That’s not what we want to see with India taking part in a series and the (five) Test matches.”

However, Labuschagne can be encouraged by his Test record at Optus Stadium in Perth, where he scored 519 runs at an average of 103.80. Labuschagne will now turn his attention to the first Test as he, Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Smith will all sit out Sunday's crucial match in Perth, hugely boosting Pakistan's hopes of winning the three-match ODI series.

Cummins' men were lucky that Zampa's wicket spared them the ignominy of becoming the first Australian team to lose a white-ball match at home by ten wickets. But the Australian captain was not discouraged as he described how bad the defeat was. “Wasn’t one of our best days,” Cummins said, adding: “We’ve been pretty good lately, but unfortunately today was one of our worst.”

with AAP