International Cricket: England look for whitewash as Pakistan make a grand entrance
England start of their 4th one dayer today against the Australians, having already bagged the 5 match series 3-0 and thus will be looking for a complete Australian whitewash.
It has been a while since one saw the likes of Australia being subjected to such humiliation as usually it’s the other way around, when the men in yellow take to the cricket grounds. However with the way the English players have been performing on their home condition grounds, it is only England who stand a real chance of achieving what once looked impossible.
Knowing Australia, the men in yellow today, despite losing the series, will give the remaining two matches their level best as they try and minimize their losing gap and also get into the winning habit, before they face Pakistan in an important series for both teams, as both will be looking to muster their lost pride.
Pakistan recently suffered a complete white wash against the Australians in Australia at the beginning of the year and Australia, a mere two days ago, lost to their arch rivals England, and that also in England’s back ally. The matches between Pakistan and Australia will also be played in similar conditions as they did in England.
The mighty Australians are looking to be threatened, after a long time however, the match that took place 2 days ago did show that the Australians are realizing their mistakes and will look to make amends in their remaining matches. If this is true or just a figment of imagination, we shall know today as the 4th one day match starts.
Many would argue that winning the remaining two matches would mean nothing, since the Australian’s have already lost the series. But to the Australians, salvaging their pride would be the most important task now, as the series moves to London. And the Australians will have to pull up their sleeves as the English batsmen are looking better than ever before and have a good record at the grounds where the remaining two matches will be played.
In terms of recent match performances, England has won all of their previous 5 one dayers whereas the Australian’s have only won only 1 of their last 5 outings. A status that the men in yellow would be looking to change as they go into the remaining two one dayers and then prepare for the Pakistan challenge.
In today’s match at least, statistics are on Australia’s side as England has never won more than 3 games in a row against Australia. On the split side, team Pakistan has arrived in England and seem to be adjusting to the English conditions well with their in-form batsmen Umar Akmal continuing his brilliant performance. He has already scored a half century in the first warm up match against the MCC and then has gone on and made 150 runs in the first innings of the ongoing match against the Kent county,
In the bowling department, the ‘Rawalpindi Express’ Shoaib Akhtar is continuing with his disciplined bowling efforts and Saeed Ajmal has also been a favorite pick from the group of bowlers. Thus Pakistan has started their tour on a positive note with even their new opening experiment of Shahzaib Hasan and Salman Butt giving good dividends so far, as both have been able to add runs under their belt and thus look comfortable with the English pitches.
Yesterday on the second day of their warm-up game against Kent, captain Shahid Afridi, suffered a side strain. However word from the dressing room is that he is fine and will be a 100 percent fit for the tour. It is crucial for Pakistan that none of their senior players get injured during this three month long tour, as Pakistan are to play throughout the summers and are already without much of their experienced players.
Younis Khan who has just been cleared of a ban that the PCB had put upon him after the miserable tour to Australia, could not find a spot in the team that arrived in England, despite getting his name cleared. Even Misbah ul Haq who is both experienced and a good player in English conditions remains in Pakistan as he could not find a place in the national side for the tour.
Thus to conclude, Pakistan look like a good unit so far in English conditions, they will now face Essex and then go up against Northamptonshire in warm up matches before they go on and play two T-20’s and 2 test matches against Australia followed by 3 tests, two T-20’s and 5 one dayers against England. The tour for Pakistan will end in late September and one can only hope that they have gotten rid of their losing bad luck after their win against Bangladesh and can go on and have a winning summer in England.
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