Steven Smith’s maiden one-day international century was the foundation of Australia’s 93-run win in their series opener against Pakistan in Sharjah.
Smith has been sparingly used by Australia in the ODI arena – this was just his seventh game in the past two years – but he provided a solid case to be included in the upcoming World Cup on home soil after coming in at three.
The 25-year-old, whose previous highest score was 46, defied tricky conditions to hit 101 from 118 balls and pin together Australia’s 255 for eight.
David Warner’s 43 at the top of the order was the only other significant contribution as Shahid Afridi returned 3-46 in a restrictive Pakistan bowling performance.
Their batsmen never got to grips with the chase, however, as they were bundled out for 162 from 36.3 overs.
Mitchell Johnson was again the main destroyer, returning 3-24, while Nathan Lyon’s bid to become Australia’s first-choice 50-over spinner continued to gather pace as he was at one stage on a hat-trick en-route to figures of 2-33 from his 10 overs.
Umar Akmal hit 47 in the middle order but Pakistan’s hopes were ended when seven-foot quick Mohammad Irfan, who had earlier bowled with pace and venom, was spectacularly run out by Warner.
Pakistan suffered a further setback after the game when it was revealed left-armer Junaid Khan would be ruled out of the remaining two ODIs and two Tests after injuring his knee in training.