Rauf and Ayub star in Pakistan's resounding 9-wicket win over Australia

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Fast bowler Haris Rauf took 5-29 and Saim Ayub scored 82 runs as Pakistan defeated Australia by nine wickets in the second one-day international on Friday.

Australia was 163 all out in 35 overs against Rauf’s relentless pace and left-hander Ayub smashed six sixes and five fours as Pakistan cruised to 169-1 in 26.3 overs to level the three-match series.

Former captain Babar Azam (15 not out) clinched the victory with a pulled six off Adam Zampa with Abdullah Shafique staying unbeaten on 64 off 69 balls which featured four boundaries and three sixes.

The series decider will be played at Perth on Sunday with Australia resting five frontline players to prepare for the five-match home test series against India, starting from Nov. 22 at Perth.

“Obviously this win gives us confidence," said Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan, who won the toss and elected to field. “We want to keep that confidence going. All the bowlers had plans and they worked well.”

The opening pair of Ayub and Shafique had been criticized for a run of low scores in test matches, but both blunted the Australian pace with a match-winning stand of 137 runs after Pakistan kept faith in the duo in the white-ball format.

Ayub took his time against fast bowler Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc before he grew in confidence and flicked Pat Cummins, Starc and Aaron Hardie for sixes and also smashed Zampa for two big hits.

The left-hander, who made his ODI debut at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday, got a reprieve just before reaching a half century when Zampa dropped a sitter at third man, but he offered a tame catch at short third man just when he looked set for a century.

Earlier, Rauf, who nearly pulled off a victory for Pakistan in the first game, found the outside edges of the bats consistently by hitting the right lengths.

Wicketkeeper Rizwan took six catches — four off Rauf’s bowling — and could have had a seventh one had he not dropped a top-edge off Zampa (18) before Australia was dismissed.

Shaheen Shah Afridi (3-26) provided the breakthrough inside the first power play. Jake Fraser-McGurk hit three crisp boundaries on the off side in Naseem Shah’s first over to get Australia rolling before Afridi’s twin strike pushed back Australia.

Afridi dropped Matt Short at deep fine leg when the ball burst through his hands to the boundary but the left-arm fast bowler made amends when he had Short caught at covers after trapping Fraser-McGurk plumb leg before wicket.

Afridi ended Australia’s below-par innings when Zampa played a full ball back onto his stumps. Zampa flicked Naseem Shah for a six and a four in an over which enabled the home team to cross the 150-run mark.

Rauf sliced through the middle-order with only Steve Smith scoring 35 off 48 balls before he too chased a wide short ball of Mohammad Hasnain and edged behind the wicket.

Hazlewood replaced Sean Abbott in the only change Australia made from the team which edged Pakistan in the first game.

Starc, Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Cummins and Hazlewood all will be rested for the final game of the series on Sunday. Wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis was named interim captain for the last ODI at Perth.

Inglis will also lead the side in next week’s three T20s against Pakistan with Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head away on paternity leave.

“Wasn’t one of our best days," Cummins said of Friday's heavy loss. “You hope to get more than 160, (but) they bowled well. We got some catchers in, tried to attack, but it wasn’t to be.”

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Fans wave Pakistan's flag as their team play against Australia during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Shaheen Afridi celebrates the dismissal of Australia's Jake Fraser-McGurk during the second one day international cricket match between Australia and Pakistan in Adelaide, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Mohammad Hasnain jumps in air as he celebrates the dismissal of Australia's Steve Smith during the second one day international cricket match between Australia and Pakistan in Adelaide, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Hasan Ali, right, celebrates the wicket of Australia's Glenn Maxwell during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Abdullah Shafique bats against Australia during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Australia's Adam Zampa drops a catch against Pakistan during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Saim Ayub raises his bat after making 50 runs against Australia during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Saim Ayub, right, hits a six in front of Australia's Josh Inglis during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan drops a catch against Australia during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Australia's Glenn Maxwell plays a shot during the second one day international cricket match between Australia and Pakistan in Adelaide, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Australia's Josh Inglis a hits an edge and is caught out by Pakistan's captain Mohammad Rizwan off the bowling of Pakistan's Haris Rauf during the second one day international cricket match between Australia and Pakistan in Adelaide, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Australia's Glenn Maxwell chops onto his stumps off the bowling of Pakistan's Haris Rauf during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Naseem Shah, center, is congratulated by teammates after taking the wicket of Australia's Mitchell Starc during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Australia's Glenn Maxwell bats against Pakistan during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Haris Rauf, left, celebrates taking the wicket of Australia's Aaron Hardie, right, during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Haris Rauf jumps in air as he celebrates the dismissal of Australia's Josh Inglis during the second one day international cricket match between Australia and Pakistan in Adelaide, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Haris Rauf, right, celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of Australia's Marnus Labuschagne during the second one day international cricket match between Australia and Pakistan in Adelaide, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/James Elsby)

Pakistan's Haris Rauf, left, celebrates the wicket of Australia's Glenn Maxwell during their one day international cricket match in Melbourne, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Australia's not-out batters Pat Cummins, right, and Mitchell Starc walk off the ground after their win over Pakistan during their one day international cricket match in Melbourne, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A survivor of the worst gang attack on Haitian journalists in recent memory described Wednesday seeing colleagues cut down by bullets and reporters with head and chest wounds going an hour or more without help.

Two reporters and one police officer died in Tuesday's attack at the reopening of Port-au-Prince's biggest public hospital. Seven journalists covering the event were wounded.

“Some were hit in the chest,” photographer Jean Fregens Regala recalled. “Some of the journalists had part of their face destroyed, some were shot in the mouth, or the head.”

Members of the Viv Ansanm coalition of street gangs, which has taken control of much of Port-au-Prince, had surrounded the hospital and opened fire through a metal gate. The gangs later said they were angry the government had announced the re-opening of the hospital without their permission.

Video from inside at the time of the attack shows a metal gate outside the hospital buckling under a hail of gunfire, as reporters scrambled to try to get inside the building.

“All the journalists started moving to go inside the hospital because we heard that the gunfire was getting close to us,” recalled Regala. “I was hiding behind by the gate to put myself somewhere safe but other journalists were rushing to go inside the hospital and there was non-stop shooting."

Regala survived only because he remained sheltered behind a concrete guardhouse next to the gate. “If I had rushed and ran, or ran inside the hospital to hide, I am sure I would among the victims.”

“We began calling for help, for just aid, for the victims that were bleeding heavily,” he said. “There was no doctor or nurse around.”

“While the hospital was about to reopen, it had no medical supplies available for giving first aid to the journalist victims and the other victims,” Regala said, adding that since they couldn't find any gloves they used plastic bags on their hands as substitutes.

Nor did the health minister show up. The area is so dangerous that when police finally responded to the journalists' calls for help after about two hours, they had to come in with a ladder over a wall from the nearby National Police because the gangs controlled most of the streets.

“These people spent more than an hour losing blood,” Regala said.

The Haitian Association of Journalists issued a statement Tuesday calling on the country's barely functioning government not to put the lives of reporters — or the public — at risk with such events.

The association called for “authorities to act prudently in their rush to make decisions, to avoid exposing to danger the journalists and others who accompany them at their events.”

Regala said it was clear as soon as they arrived that the area around the hospital was unsafe.

“The fact that the minister of health invited us, you feel that preparations have been made already,” he said. “When we made contact with a police unit, the police told us, they were not aware of the event, of the reopening of the hospital.”

The government had no immediate response to the complaints. Meanwhile, the seven wounded journalists were taken to another hospital.

“I send my sympathies to the people who were victims, the national police and the journalists," Haiti’s interim president, Leslie Voltaire, said in an address to the nation Tuesday.

Street gangs have taken over an estimated 85% of Port-au-Prince and have also targeted the main international airport and Haiti’s two largest prisons.

Johnson “Izo” André, considered Haiti’s most powerful gang leader and part of the Viv Ansanm group of gangs, posted a video on social media Tuesday claiming responsibility for the attack.

The video said the gang coalition had not authorized the hospital’s reopening.

Haiti has seen journalists targeted before. In 2023, two local journalists were killed in the space of a couple of weeks — radio reporter Dumesky Kersaint was fatally shot in mid-April that year, while journalist Ricot Jean was found dead later that month.

In July, former Prime Minister Garry Conille visited the Hospital of the State University of Haiti, more widely known as the General Hospital, after authorities regained control of it from gangs.

The hospital had been left ravaged and strewn with debris. Walls and nearby buildings were riddled with bullet holes, signaling fights between police and gangs. On Tuesday, Regala said workers were only just painting and cleaning the hospital.

Gang attacks have pushed Haiti’s health system to the brink of collapse, looting, setting fires and destroying medical institutions and pharmacies in the capital. The violence has created a surge in patients and a shortage of resources to treat them.

Regala said he will ignore his family's pleas to get out of journalism.

“The work needs to continue, to make sure the population is kept informed,” he said.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

People help a wounded journalist who was shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

Journalists sit wounded after being shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

A wounded journalist talks on the phone after being shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

Journalists climb up a wall to take cover from gunfire, after being shot at by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

The wife of a journalist, who was shot during an armed gang attack on the General Hospital, cries as an ambulance arrives with his body, at a different hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Medics inspect an ambulance of wounded people, shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

A wounded security officer looks on after being shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

A journalist helps wounded journalists who were shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

The wife of a journalist, who was shot during an armed gang attack on the General Hospital, cries as an ambulance arrives with his body, at a different hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Journalists lie wounded after being shot by armed gangs at the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Dieugo Andre)