Pakistan vs Australia – 2nd ODI – Match Preview
Pakistan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 will take on each other today in the second of the three-match One day International (ODI) series at Abu Dhabi, with the Aussies leading the battle by a margin of 1-0.
The Baggy Greens are currently going through a rebuilding phase in limited-overs cricket but http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MJ-Clarke-c1978 and company showed immense mental strength to cross the line in the first ODI at Sharjah.
It was widely expected that the Pakistani spinners will trouble the Aussies in UAE, which was true, with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 dominating the proceedings in the initial fixture. However, a poor display with
the bat and an impotent fast bowling attack allowed the Aussies to run away with the show.
However, Clarke's men did not have it easy either, with most of their top-order batsmen looking at sea against the turning ball. If the Kangaroos want to win the series in a comprehensive manner, they will need to counter the spinners
effectively.
Clarke however, was an exception, using his feet brilliantly and consistently rotating the strike. After scoring a half-century against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745, the Aussie skipper should be proud of himself with another one against the Green
Shirts.
The 31-year-old cricketer understands that his team needs to cope with the Pakistani spinners in a more authoritative manner.
"I guess playing spin bowling is an area that we'd want to continue to improve as a batting group," http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 said. "It's something that we're focused on, it's an area we need to continue to get better at." "I've got two starts, two
fifties (75 and 66), and I haven't been able to go on."
On the other side of the coin, Pakistan have problems of their own, and are refusing to learn from their batting mistakes. Australian batsmen’s life was made tough by the brilliance of Ajmal and company but the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 batsmen are
still self-destructing in the face of pressure.
Apart from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mitchell-Aaron-Starc-c76392, all the other batsmen threw away their wickets at crucial junctures of the match.
However, there were some positives as well for the Green Shirts, with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Asad-Shafiq-c46208 scoring promising half-centuries.
Misbah ul Haq admitted after the match that his batsmen cannot afford to keep delivering such mediocre performances. He feels that the lower-order has been Pakistan’s strength over the years with a number of quality all-rounders,
and the Pakistan skipper wants Shahid Afridi and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kamran-Akmal-c70122 to make an impact on the game in the death overs.
"Our lower order is not contributing," expressed Misbah. "We are losing matches because we are not scoring runs there and that is why we had Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal. We committed mistakes, mistakes we have been repeating in
the last two or three series."
Akmal is making a comeback at the international level after almost 18 months, but he was slotted down the order, as opposed his past batting position.
It remains to be seen if Hafeez, despite some poor performances of late with the bat, is retained at the top of the order or not.
Abu Dhabi’s pitch is expected to be more in favour of the batsmen as compared to Sharjah's, which means that cricket fans can expect a high-scoring encounter.
Tags: