Minhas’ match-winning debut earns praise from Australia’s Renshaw

May 31 : Australian batter Matt Renshaw praised spinner Arafat Minhas after the teenager led Pakistan to a comfortable five-wicket win over Australia on his one-day international debut in Rawalpindi on Saturday.

The 19-year-old claimed five wickets for 32 runs before hitting the final delivery for six to claim man-of-the-match honours as Pakistan cruised to victory in the first of three meetings between the teams.

“The Pakistan spinners are always quality, not a surprise to see someone come in and do really well,” said Renshaw, who top scored for Australia with 61 runs.

“They always produce good spinners and good quicks, so not surprising at all.

“To get five-fer on debut is pretty special. It was challenging when I went out there.

“Little bit different for me as a left hander compared to the right handers. A few balls spun out of the side of the wicket, but I didn’t face too much of him today.

“But obviously he did really well, took the wickets early.”

Only two Australian batters managed to move beyond the half-century mark on the scoreboard as the Josh Inglis-captained side reached 200 runs before being bowled out with almost six overs remaining.

After a slow start, Pakistan took command when Babar Azam and Ghazi Ghori put on 127 for the third wicket while Minhas blasted Marnus Labuschagne over the boundary for the winning runs with more than seven overs to spare.

“When you’re four down early it makes it really difficult to try and build a score,” said Renshaw.

“We built a couple of really good partnerships, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough today. We did what we could with what we had but it wasn’t enough.”