Tag: Australia

  • Cummins leads Australia to nervy win after Pakistan fight back in first ODI

    Cummins leads Australia to nervy win after Pakistan fight back in first ODI

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    Cummins’s all-round performance took Australia to a two-wicket win in Melbourne for a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.

    Australia’s captain Pat Cummins has guided his team home to a tense two-wicket win over Pakistan after a brief wobble in their run-chase in the first one-day international (ODI) in Melbourne.

    Cummins scored 32 crucial runs and took two wickets as Australia chased 204 despite a late Pakistani fightback, and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series on Monday.

    Pakistan were dismissed for 203 in 46.4 overs after being asked to bat first as their batters failed to cope with the Australian pace attack on a fast and bouncy pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

    Australia, who won the ODI World Cup in India in 2023, were coasting towards the target with Steve Smith and Josh Inglis at the crease at 113-2 after 16.2 overs.

    However, the visitors posed a brief threat to the world champions when their fast bowlers combined to take five wickets for 45 runs and opened up the match.

    Cummins, though, was calm while wickets fell around him and hit four boundaries as he completed the chase with fellow fast bowler Mitchell Starc.

    The captain, playing his first ODI since the World Cup final, burnished his record of guiding Australia to victory from positions of peril, having scored the winning runs during the Ashes Test at Edgbaston last year and twice hung tough with the bat at the World Cup.

    “Tonight we got it done. I always much prefer sitting in the changing room but a wonderful match,” Cummins said afterwards.

    “It got a bit tighter than we would have liked in the end.”

    The ground was only a quarter full with a crowd of 25,800, but Rauf had Pakistan fans jumping in the terraces with a sizzling spell that included dismissing Marnus Labuschagne (16) and Glenn Maxwell (0) in successive deliveries.

    Pace spearhead Starc was named man of the match with three wickets, including both the openers of Pakistan.

    In Pakistan’s first ODI since missing the World Cup semifinals, the team’s top batter, Babar Azam, returned to the lineup after being stunningly dropped for the second and third Tests against England.

    The former captain made 37 off 44 balls before being bowled by leg-spinner Adam Zampa with an ill-judged push at a straight delivery.

    Saim Ayub made his ODI debut as Mohammad Rizwan captained Pakistan, reprising his opening partnership in Tests with Abdullah Shafique, despite the pair’s terrible record batting together.

    Both were dismissed cheaply by Starc; Ayub for one after chopping onto his stumps and Shafique caught behind for 12.

    Rizwan top-scored for Pakistan with 44 and ODI debutant Irfan Khan made 22 batting at seven before being run out.

    But it took tail-end slogging from Naseem Shah (40) and Afridi (24) to push Pakistan past 200.

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  • Donated Aussie Abrams tanks to receive baptism of fire in Ukraine

    Donated Aussie Abrams tanks to receive baptism of fire in Ukraine

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    CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Some have predicted the demise of heavy armored vehicles on future battlefields, but Australian defense officials, in words and actions, are underscoring the enduring relevance of the main battle tank.

    On Oct. 17, Australia pledged to gift 49 second-hand M1A1 AIM Abrams tanks to Ukraine. This came just weeks after a first batch of new M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams replacements arrived in Australia from the U.S.

    Australia never utilized its 59 M1A1 Abrams in combat, but they will soon be used in anger against Russian invaders in Ukraine. Boasting a 120mm main gun, thick armor and advanced sensors, older Abrams still remain a formidable battlefield weapon, whether in Ukraine or the Asia-Pacific region.

    “There are no other current or emerging technologies – or combination of technologies – that can yet deliver the capability currently provided by a main battle tank,” an Australian Department of Defence spokesperson told Defense News.

    Brigadier James Davis, the Australian Army’s director general of Future Land Warfare, told Defense News that crew skills – “the basics of warfare, camouflage, concealment” – remain as important as ever amid the advent of loitering munitions and similar threats.

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    “That’s how Western armored vehicles – and Australian armored vehicles – crewed by Western crews and Australian crews, are going to survive on the battlefield; a combination of training, tactics, technology and systems,” he said.

    The tank donation to Kyiv, worth approximately A$245 million (US$164 million), will “bolster the armed forces of Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion,” Canberra said.

    Australia’s Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery Pat Conroy commented, “These tanks will deliver more firepower and mobility to the Ukrainian armed forces, and complement the support provided by our partners for Ukraine.”

    In response to the news, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted, “I’m especially grateful for Australia’s brave decision to provide 49 M1A1 Abrams tanks for our defense against Russian aggression.”

    American permission was required for this handover, but Ukrainian crews are already familiar with the platform after the U.S. promised to donate 31 M1A1 SA Abrams to Ukraine in January 2023. Perhaps half have been destroyed to date.

    Australia will retain ten M1A1 tanks, and these will assist in the transition to its own fleet of M1A2s. Under Project Land 907, approved in January 2022, the Australian Army is receiving 75 M1A2 SEPv3 tanks, 29 M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles, 17 M1074 Joint Assault Bridges and six additional M88A2 armored recovery vehicles.

    Under the Australian military’s restructure announced in 2023′s Defence Strategic Review, the Army’s 3rd Brigade in Townsville will be the sole repository of this heavy-armor influx.

    To date, Australian military assistance for Ukraine is valued at more than A$1.3 billion, and it includes Bushmaster protected vehicles, M113AS4 armored personnel carriers and M777 howitzers.

    Gordon Arthur is an Asia correspondent for Defense News. After a 20-year stint working in Hong Kong, he now resides in New Zealand. He has attended military exercises and defense exhibitions in about 20 countries around the Asia-Pacific region.

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