Maaz Sadaqat suffers injury scare during third Pakistan-Australia ODI

LAHORE: Pakistan's left-handed opener Maaz Sadaqat was carried off the field after suffering a gruelling blow to his head during their third home ODI against Australia, underway here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday.

The incident occurred on the fourth delivery of the 10th over when Marnus Labuschagne cut one off Arafat Minhas towards the deep square.

As a result, Sadaqat, positioned at the point, ran at full pace and managed to flick the ball back to save a run, but injured himself as his head hit the ground hard, then went into the fence during the fielding effort.

The 21-year-old stayed down outside the boundary as teammate Shamyl Hussain called for medical attention, and after being briefly examined by the staff, he was helped off the field around the boundary.

The potential injury adds to Sadaqat's woes in the ongoing ODI series against Australia as the left-handed opener has been struggling for runs, managing just eight in two innings.

He made a cautious eight off 14 deliveries in the series opener, while falling for a golden duck in the subsequent fixture, which the visitors won by 41 runs here at the same venue on Tuesday.

Playing XIs

Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan, Maaz Sadaqat, Babar Azam, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Abdul Samad, Shadab Khan, Arafat Minhas, Shaheen Shah Afridi (c), Haris Rauf and Abrar Ahmed.

Australia: Matt Short, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis (c/wk), Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Matt Renshaw, Ollie Peake, Nathan Ellis, Cooper Connolly, Adam Zampa and Matt Kuhnemann.