Pakistan's tour to England: Pakistan vs. Australia T20 Preview
The battle between two of the most fierce cricket teams in the world is all set to kick start today in the cricket fields of England, as Pakistan takes on the Australians at Birmingham in the first of two T20 matches.
The last time these two teams met in a T20 encounter was in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup in 2010 where Pakistan dominated for 37 over’s of the game but lost the match in the last 3 overs. Michael Hussey played one of the best innings of his life and brought Australia back from the jaws of defeat to win the match.
The match saw a total of almost 400 runs being scored and it was one of the greatest display of cricket from both sides as Australia needing 18 runs from the last over, finished the game with one ball left in the innings as Saeed Ajmal became a victim of the inform Hussey.
The Pakistanis have not forgotten that defeat and thus would be looking to settle their scores in today’s match as they look to regain their winning streak as well as get revenge for their humiliating tour of Australia earlier in the year.
Today’s match will mark the start of Pakistan’s summer tour of England as they take on the Australians in two T20 matches followed by a two match test series. That will be followed by their series against hosts England.
By looking at the recent performances, Australia is coming into the game after losing their one-day series against England. However they have won the final two games in an impressive manner.
Pakistan on the other hand comes in with their failed Asia Cup 2010 campaign. However, they played some good competitive cricket in that series and ended it on a high note as they managed to literally thrash http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 in the last match.
To Pakistan’s advantage, they are the only team in the world of cricket which can boast of an entertaining mix of talented players comprising of Shahid Afridi along with the Rawalpindi Express, who has returned to international cricket after a long time.
For http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, Shaun Tait will be the key player as he has been instrumental in bringing the Australians back into their winning form after they lost three consecutive games to England.
For Pakistan, the young and ever improving Umar Akmal will most likely be the key player as he has been the main backbone along with Salman Butt in the batting line up.
In Umar’s last meeting with the Australians, he scored an unbeaten 56 runs taking up only 35 balls.
Pakistan also enjoy the luxury of having two of the leading wicket takers in T20 cricket in the shape of Umar Gul and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, both of whom will be representing their side in this tour.
In terms of total T20 matches played between the two teams, Pakistan and Australia have faced each other on 5 occasions out of which http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 has emerged victorious on two occasions while the Australians have won the other three.
Thus Pakistan, who is coming in with a string of losses against their mighty yellow opponents, is well aware that Australia has a habit of winning.
Afridi is expected to continue with his ‘boom boom’ form and his batsmen, who comprise of the talented Akmal brothers, along with the experience and class of Shoaib Malik and Abdul Razzaq, can continue to deliver as they have been doing so far in their warm-up games against the county sides.
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