Minhas' match-winning debut earns praise from Australia's batter Renshaw

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 night.

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."

Reuters