Australia and Pakistan in UAE

[ZexyZahid]

For commercial goals Misbah-ul-Haq is extending the game the furthest he can.

He might even paddle a ball straight into a fine leg fielder in the last over of the match when about 1 or 2 runs are needed.

ZexyZahid added 1 Minutes and 9 Seconds later...

It seems I've woken him up, because he just hit two fours in a row.

Gul hits a four and the match is over.

ZexyZahid added 6 Minutes and 39 Seconds later...

Next match is already after two days and in the same stadium. So there is not much time to recover. Australia will probably withouth Marsh.

Pakistan should play with Tanvir.

From Australia's point of view it isn't a bad thing, because they can still win with 4-1.

 

[King Cricket]

Did somebody jinx the pitch before the start of this match? Otherwise, this type of low scoring match when both the teams had star-studded line-ups........strange! These things are very rare in intl cricket.
Anyway, I'm really impressed by Pakistan's performance today. Although they did lose 6 wickets whilst chasing, a win is a win, and a win against four time WC winners, it's a big big win.

 

[Kelp]

Great game! They should probably drop Akhtar for the next game or bring him in first change.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Is Marsh again out for a long period : if Marsh is rules out call Warner immidiately

 

[usy]

It was a very decent game, i watched the whole match, it was extremely boring in the end, specially when Misbah was playing.

Anyways, I hope Pakistan beat Aussies in the series, and that would be real fun.

 

[yakuza003]

I think afridi should open the batting with kamran akmal, they should not select Nasir Jamshad he is not that good cricketer to be honest, I want to see Sohail Tanvir who had purple cap in IPL so he is good bowler and batsman or they can bring Fawad Alam who showed us how he can play with his batting against West Indies team.

Younis khan has to change him self the way he played in last game, he didnt hit the bowl hard when he was playing pull shot, i seen some of his biggest sixes he can do it but he needs to bring his form back !!!


AUSUIEE GOT OUT HAHAH AHHAHA HAHAHA ( TAKE THAT !!! ) PAKISTAN IS NO 1 KEEP IT IN YOUR MIND !!!!

yakuza003 added 7 Minutes and 44 Seconds later...

Great game! They should probably drop Akhtar for the next game or bring him in first change.

My friend you cant drop your great players out of team, even if they play good or not, afridi doesnt play good every time does he?? but because he is one of the greatest player in the team, he showed us his magic.

 

[age of the fall]

Well, didn't see that coming when I woke up, I didn't know that Afridi was that good of a spinner. Sounds like from the last few pages that Australia where completely beaten by the drift and doosra/googly. Bit gutted I couldn't watch the game really.

This Ajmal guy seems incredible, 1/19 off 10. Wow

 

[Leggie]

Good to see Pakistan playing cricket and winning again.

 

[aussie1st]

Yet another pathetic batting display. Symonds better find form soon if we lose this series and he does jack all that could be his career.

 

[usy]

LOL, having that said, I really hope Auss loose 3-2 now.

 

[deerkick]

What is happening to Aussie batting lineup?

But on the other hand, well played Pakistan. Gives the fans something to cheer about after the long hiatus from cricket.

 

[sifter132]

They need both Hayden and Gilly.

Yeah I read this over at Cricinfo too on one of their linked articles to the match:

Cricinfo - Australians shine but in the wrong place


It doesn't make much sense. Sure they've both played a good innings in the last couple of days but it won't fix Australia's problems.

Firstly, they are old and won't be playing in the next ODI World Cup so why bring 2 old stagers back for a meaningless series? Who cares if we lose this series to Pakistan? Sure our ranking goes down, but it's only ODIs. The World Cup is basically the only ODI event worth caring about these days. It's not a home series so there are no gate receipts or TV ratings to think off either. They could make a radical comeback for the T20 World Cup I guess, but even that is pretty unlikely, since they are both enjoying their retirements with their families and probably wouldn't want to extend their trip away from home another month.

And secondly and most importantly, the problems we are having are NOT AT THE TOP!!!!! The article at Cricinfo goes on to document the hideous middle order collapses in the last few ODIs. Hayden's rarely stopped a batting collapse in his life, he's out before they happen and Gilchrist is just as likely to contribute to a collapse as to stop one given his boom or bust style. Gilchrist would only replace Haddin who has probably been our best performer with the bat of late.


On paper we aren't that bad. Clarke and Ferguson both hit a couple of 50s in SA, they should be in reasonable nick. Watson did pretty well last night and Hopes has been batting well at #7. Trouble is when one guy makes 50 no one has stayed with him of late, except for a couple of Clarke/Haddin opening stands. D.Hussey and Symonds have big question marks on their form and now Marsh might be out so we'd have to play both of them :

No we need a tough middle order player who can play spin bowling well. Preferably a leftie as well since our current side has too many right handers. Make the spinners vary their lines a bit. Allan Border would be good...

 

[ali_ed2001]

Pakistan took a risk by playing 4 specialist bowlers...I would count Afridi in there too because he rarely performs with the bat..so basically there's 6 specialist batsman, 1 bowling allrounder, and 4 bowlers..I think in next game they need to rethink this strategy, if the target was 50 more runs we could have been in big trouble. You can't have Umar Gul come out to bat when you lose your 6th wicket.

ali_ed2001 added 1 Minutes and 55 Seconds later...

why didn't David Hussey play though ?? i thought he was in good form in SA..he would be way better than Ferguson. I'm sure Symonds will score big in the remainder of the series, he always does something big against Pakistan.

 

[aussie1st]

Dussey was poor in SA I don't think he even scored 50 runs for the whole series while Ferguson was our best batter.

Agree with Sifter that our middle order needs a good player of spin and a leftie. Our options would be Birt who had an awesome season, North who is gritty and Warner well had to mention him

 

[SaiSrini]

Why is Australia performing so poorly in ODI's these days? Didnt they lose to SA in the ODI series recently? Also who won the ODI's in Australia when SA toured Australia?

I feel Australia's ODI form has taken a big dip. Anyways, its good for Pakistan that they have won (after all that has happened in the past few months). They must feel a lot better.

P.s: I love the kits worn by both teams. Looks cool!