Ricky Ponting wants his front line bowlers to take charge
If Australia lacked anything in the first test against Pakistan, it was the performance of their front line bowlers. Australia managed to bag 20 wickets in first test only because of some surprising performances by Shane Watson and Marcus North. Watson took five wickets in first innings while surprisingly, part-time spinner Marcus North picked up 6 wickets in the second innings. Such was the surprise that even Marcus North was taken a back with his six-wicket haul at Lord’s.
Conditions were favouring the seam bowlers, yet Bollinger, Mitchell Johnson and Hilfenhaus picked up only six wickets out of the 20 picked up by Australia. This was the only worry that Australian captain Ricky Ponting faced during the first test. No Australian batsman scored a century but they managed to post decent scores in difficult conditions. "If you want to be critical you can probably look at the fact that we got 11 wickets out of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 and North in the game. Our fast bowlers probably tried a little bit too hard I think in conditions that were suiting the quicker bowlers. I think they probably tried to get a bit too much out of the wicket.”
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 stretched its sequence of victories against Pakistan in the test format to 13 which is a world record in itself. Pakistan has been performing well in T20 and ODI cricket but has failed to impress in the longest format of the game.
Ponting believes that condition will be similar in Leeds and pacers will find help from the pitch. The playing conditions will heavily depend upon the weather conditions, if the weather is cloudy, it will be a nightmare for batsmen while a sunny outlook can turn the track into a complete belter. Ponting thinks that the seamers will once again get a chance to create various problems for the batsmen. He said, “That can happen here [in Leeds] as well because you know that this place is a place that can nip about a bit for the seamers - we've spoken about that a bit. Otherwise I was pretty happy, our fielding was pretty sharp, I don't think we put any chances down. It's just more about getting your head back around playing good solid Test match cricket again."
Pakistan will go into the match with an inexperienced batting line up which includes Umar Amin and Azhar Ali. Both players showed a lot of promise in their first test but the Australian bowlers will fancy their chances against them since it will only be their second test. The pitch at Headingley is likely to favour the bowlers while the batters will have a tough task in negotiating the seam bowling.
Shoaib Malik will replace http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-c88163 Butt out early. "If any pressure needs to be put on him this week it's going to be with what we do with the ball," Ponting said ahead of Leeds test. "I think we were a little bit off the mark with what we did with the ball to him last week and he hit a lot of boundaries. I think his first 50 in the second innings he hit 10 or 11 boundaries, so we've got to stop that."
Pakistan’s bowling attack has remained good with some quality bowling from Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif. On the contrary, Pakistan’s think-tank is also thinking of bringing in Saeed Ajmal in the place of leg-spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saqlain-Mushtaq-c88743 clarified that both bowlers were equally good but Danish has an edge because of his test experience.
Ponting will be hoping that his front men will strike, while Pakistan’s 10th captain in ten years, Salman Butt will hope to revive test cricket for Pakistan by ending the longest losing streak in test cricket between two countries.
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