AUS vs PAK preview

The defending champions Pakistan take on Australia today at st.lucia. Pakistan beat Bangladesh yesterday by 21 runs and they will be feeling confident ahead of this match. Whereas on the other hand, Australia will be under extreme pressure to win this. Australia lost their opening fixtures in both the previous world cups and their coaching staff must have briefed them about how important is it to begin well.
Australia is taking this format seriously now and they have specialist T20 players in their current squad. They are with their new captain Michael Clarke. David Warner, Cameron White, David Hussey, Shaun Tait and Dirk nannes are considered to be their T20 specialist with mitchel Johnson, Michael hussey , brad haddin and Michael Clarke having the experience of all the three levels.
Australia has all the three quickies who can bowl around 90mph so dealing with the pace trio of mithcell Johnson, shaut tait and dirk nannes wont be easy. The big decision that Michael Clarke has to make is to whether to go with specialist spinner Nathan haurtiz or to go with hard hitting allrounder Stephen smith!
Afridi said after the match about ‘butt’, i thought maybe he was going to the WI with me, but i don’t think he will get a chance. But when i saw him, he was batting really well, especially in the first six overs, i told salman: ‘you are my main guy’.
Pakistan probably will go for an unchanged side. There was not much of a practice for the middle order batsman of Pakistan in the previous game so it is important for Pakistan that their openers give them the right start.
Australia (probable starting 11) 1 Shane Watson, 2 David Warner, 3 Michael Clarke (capt), 4 David Hussey, 5 Cameron White, 6 Brad Haddin (wk), 7 Michael Hussey, 8 Steven Smith, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Dirk Nannes, 11 Shaun Tait. .
Pakistan (probable starting 11) 1 Salman Butt, 2 Kamran Akmal (wk), 3 Shahid Afridi (capt), 4 Abdul Razzaq, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Mohammad Hafeez, 7 Umar Akmal, 8 Fawad Alam, 9 Mohammad Sami, 10 Mohammad Aamer, 11 Saeed Ajmal.
Pakistan better watch out for david warner because the new ball pair of Pakistan provides pace and thats what warner looks for. If he gets a start, it will be threatening one for Pakistan.
"On these types of tracks he'd be very difficult for the opposition."
Shahid Afridi wants Nathan Hauritz to play. But does he really think he'll be a threat or does he just want to face him?
"They're not going to be bowling short. They're going to be bowling full and they're going to be going further. So we'll see what happens."
David Warner is eying the straight boundaries in this tournament

pakistan did it !

Well well well as precdicted Pakistan won the game but having said that it is bad to make predictions in a TWENTY20 match. Surprisingly and strangely M.asif was left out in favour of M.sami who is not at all consistent performer and at times can turn out to be a great gamble to play but anyhow Shahid afridi had the confidence on him and he thought he would be more useful than M.asif.
Winning the toss and batting first was the obvious decision that afridi had to made. Salman butt for me was the surprise of the day, having hit the very first ball of his innings with power towards extra cover was a signal of something really special coming up from him. Both the opener’s intent was clear; just go after the bowlers yet sensibly.

Both aggressed regularly but with thought. Akmal's stance was predictable, almost immediately trying to set the agenda. A bold statement was made against left-arm spin - Bangladesh's most potent weapon - straight away, as he twice swept away Abdur Razzak in the second over. Akmal was the who taking risks was and it paid off when a mis cued pull shot was bluffed by M.ashraful. Bangladesh was made it pay for that chance and akmal started to open his shoulders. On the other hand, salman butt played intelligently, hitting boundary in almost every over. Surprisingly for everyone in the word watching him play, he scored his fifty in just 29 balls.
Akmal got out in the 16th over, then came the boom boom afridi. Pakistan could not capitalize on the perfect start given by their openers and they managed 30 runs in last 26 deliveries.
Pakistan camp seemed pretty satisfied with 172 runs as at the toss, Afridi said anything above 150 would be good.
Amir gave Pakistan the perfect start, getting rid of kayes in the very first over. M.ashraful and Shakib ul hasan played brilliantly well and at one time it seemed like they might even take the game away from Pakistan. With 5 overs remaining and 52 to get with 8 wickets remaining, the match was almost evenly poised.
Afridi game turned to sami, i personally thought it was a bad move as sami can go for plenty but it was the captain’s faith on him, he didn’t disappoint his captain and he got 2 wickets in that over and the match virtually over at that time, with ashraful going out in the next over. Pakistan was safe. Ajmal bowled a superb last over and eventually Pakistan won the match by 21 runs.
There are some positives that Pakistan can take from this match. Salman butt’s inning was special, their opening stand of 142, amir,ajmal and sami bowling pretty well but still there are some aspects of the game on which Pakistan still has to work on. I think their running between the wickets were poor, their boundary riders could not prevent doubles and afridi really has to find a place for ajmal because he is not a quick mover and therefore cannot prevent singles by fielding in the inner ring nor does he has the strongest of arms to field at boundary.
Overall a fine display by Pakistan, yet they can improve. Bangladesh will take many positives out of this game. Tomorrow there will be a cracker of a game between Australia and Pakistan so c yaaaaaa.....