As the time of this writing, India have just won their Quarter-Final match against Bangladesh by a huge 109 run margin. This means, whoever wins this match between Australia and Pakistan tomorrow at Adelaide books a date in the semi-final at the Sydney Cricket Ground next week. Certainly a big challenge awaits both Australia and Pakistan, but they need to get through this hurdle first.
Pakistan began their World Cup campaign in the worst way possible, losing to arch-rivals India in the first match and then to West Indies. But after much hand wringing and gnashing of the teeth, and a lot of tinkering with the team line-up, finally found their footing, winning all the four remaining games. The win against South Africa gave them great confidence and should hold them in good stead as they take on Australia, perhaps the strongest team in world cricket right now.
For Pakistan, captain Misbah-ul-Haq’s leadership has been inspiration and perhaps the biggest factor in their turnaround. They have been helped as well by the remarkable performance of Sarfraz Ahmed, whose batting technique was said to be too flawed for opening the batting – but that has what he has done, to surprisingly good effect. They have also been helped by a superb performance by their pace attack, led by the super fast Wahab Riaz.
A confident Misbah says, “When you’re playing more games at a certain venue you really just adapt to the conditions and know how the pitch will play, how the boundaries are, how the ground dimensions are. That can really help you.”
Even Australia captain Michael Clarke agrees that Pakistan have been quite good in this world cup and knows he can’t afford to take them lightly. Clarke praised Pakistan in a news conference. He said, “I think Pakistan have been underrated for a long time, especially in the shorter form of the game. I think they’ve got a lot of talent. I think their attack is very good and they’ve shown that throughout this series.”
Clearly, there is a lot of mutual respect between the two sides. But Australia would back themselves to get through this game because of their excellent pace attack, comprising of the 3 fastest bowlers in the game – Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins. Starc in particular has been, perhaps, the best bowler of the tournament. He has been simply sensation – fast, accurate and ruthless.
In the batting department, Glenn Maxwell has shown what a special talent he is, perhaps one of the most dangerous batsmen in world cricket right now. What’s remarkable about the Aussie side is that their best batsman gets in after the opposition has seen out the likes of David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steven Smith and Michael Clarke.
We expect a strong performance from Pakistan tomorrow, but beating this Australian side would take some doing.
The Teams
Australia: 1 Aaron Finch, 2 David Warner, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Shane Watson, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 James Faulkner, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Mitchell Starc, 11 Pat Cummins/Josh Hazlewood
Pakistan: 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 3 Haris Sohail, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt.), 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Sohaib Maqsood, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Sohail Khan, 10 Rahat Ali, 11 Ehsan Adil/Yasir Shah
Match conditions
The pitch at Adelaide has been quicker than it usually is in this World Cup. Fast bowlers have received a plenty of assistance and we expect the same tomorrow, especially with Australia’s trio of fast bowlers playing. No rain is expected and we should get a full day of cricket tomorrow in Adelaide.
Watch Pakistan take on Australia in the 3rd Quarter-Final of the ICC World Cup live on Star Sports tomorrow at 9:00 Am!
