A match between two first round winners, this one is eagerly anticipated.
After an easy match against Zimbabwe, this match will be the first real test of competition leaders Australia, against a Pakistani team featuring a very strong fast bowling attack.
Javed Miandad and Imran Khan saw Pakistan to victory in the first round over New Zealand, but their batting misfired as a whole, and will be put under pressure by a strong Australian attack and good fielding unit.
Teams are unchanged from the first round.
Pitch: 16 - Possibly over watered and with a distinctly green look to it. The pitch must favour the seamers early on but for how long and to what extent is difficult to predict. Once the initial liveliness has gone it should play quite well and there is little prospect of any real help for the bowlers thereafter.
Day 1 Conditions:
Pitch: 6 - Green Wicket
Weather: 2 - Hot and Sunny
Australian lineup:
G.R.Marsh, M.A.Taylor, D.C.Boon, M.E.Waugh, D.M.Jones, A.R.Border (c), I.A.Healy (wk), M.G.Hughes, C.J.McDermott, S.K.Warne, B.A.Reid
Pakistan lineup:
Rameez Raja, Shoaib Mohammad, Zahid Fazal, Javed Miandad, Saleem Malik, Imran Khan (c), Wasim Akram, Moin Khan (wk), Waqar Younus, Saleem Jaffer, Aaqib Javed
Toss: Australia
Australia won the toss, and despite the wicket being green, elected to bat first, knowing the pitch would favour the spin of Shane Warne later in the match.
No comments:
Post a Comment