David Warner and Mitchell Marsh produced one of the best partnerships for the opening wicket for Australia to dominate Pakistan in the ICC World Cup 2023 match on Friday, October 20. Australian openers registered 259 runs for the opening wicket to produce the highest partnership for any wicket against Pakistan in World Cup history.
Babar Azam won the toss for Pakistan and elected to bowl first at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium. But Australian openers made the Pakistani skipper regret the decision to field by scoring brilliant hundreds. Warner continued his red-hot form by smashing his 47th international century while Marsh scored 121 runs to score his first-ever World Cup hundred.
The duo added 259 runs for the opening wicket in just 33.5 overs to bring only the third 200-plus stand for the first wicket in World Cup history as well. This was also Australia's highest partnership for the opening wicket in World Cup history and overall second biggest for any wicket.
Highest partnerships for any wicket in ODI World Cup:
- 372 runs - Marlon Samels and Chris Gayle (West Indies) vs Zimbabwe in 2015
- 318 runs - Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid (India) vs Sri Lanka in 1999
- 282 runs - Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka) vs Zimbabwe in 2011
- 273* runs - Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway (New Zealand) vs England in 2023
- 260 runs - David Warner and Steve Smith (Australia) vs Afghanistan in 2015
- 259 runs - David Warner and Mitchell Marsh (Australia) vs Pakistan in 2023
Australia Playing XI: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Pakistan Playing XI: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
