Pakistan Squad vs Australia

 

Pakistan ODI squad: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal , Fawad Alam, Umar Amin, Asad Shafiq, Sohaib Maqsood, Sarfraz Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Raza Hasan, Mohammad Irfan, Anwar Ali, Wahab Riaz, Junaid khan

T20 squad: Shahid Afridi (capt), Ahmed Shahzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Umar Amin, Sohaib Maqsood, Awais Zia, Saad Naseem, Raza Hasan, Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Bilwalal Bhatti, Anwar Ali, Sohail Tanvir

A squad for four-day game Shan Masood, Ahmed Shehzad, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq (capt), Harris Sohail, Israr Ullah, Adnan Akmal, Raza Hasan, Karamat Ali, Imran Khan, Atta Ullah, Rahat Ali, Ehsan Adil, Mohammad Talha

A squad for one-dayers against UAE Sohaib Maqsood (capt), Sami Aslam, Sharjeel Khan, Nasir Jamshed, Harris Sohail, Babar Azam, Ehsan Adil, Imran Khan, Zafar Gohar, Bismillah Khan (wk), Karamat Ali, Bilawal Bhatti, Adil Amin, Usman Khan, Atta Ullah

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Australia crush Pakistan by 94 runs

Australia began the series with one of their worst Twenty20 losses but they finished it with their second-best win in the format, crushing Pakistan by 94 runs in the dead rubber in Dubai. David Warner and Shane Watson set up the victory with an Australian-record opening partnership before Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc ran through Pakistan, who suffered their worst defeat in a T20 international and were all out for 74, their lowest total in the format.

Pakistan still won the series 2-1 but if the old sporting cliché that you're only as good as your last performance can be trusted, the Australians will be reasonably happy when they arrive in Sri Lanka in the next few days for the ICC World Twenty20. The fact that Warner and Watson both fired and found their six-hitting rhythm would be especially pleasing for the captain George Bailey, although some more runs from the middle order would have been preferable.

Cummins was outstanding with the new ball as Pakistan slumped to 19 for 5 in the chase, and Brad Hogg's 1 for 11 - the most economical four-over spell by an Australian in a T20 international - was another positive sign for the Australians. They narrowly missed out on bettering their most comprehensive T20 victory, the 95-run defeat they inflicted on South Africa at the Gabba in January 2006, and it was a win Australia desperately needed, having fallen to tenth on the ICC T20 rankings.

Pursuing 169 for a clean sweep, Pakistan simply couldn't get into the chase. Imran Nazir was lbw to a Starc inswinger in the second over and Cummins picked up two wickets in the next over, Mohammad Hafeez caught at cover and Shoaib Malik bowled for a third-ball duck by a super inswinger that swerved in between bat and pad.

Starc picked up his second wicket when he had Kamran Akmal caught off a leading edge and Umar Akmal followed soon afterwards when he thought he connected well enough to clear deep midwicket off Watson, only to see Michael Hussey run around the boundary rope and take an excellent catch while staying just inside the field of play. At 19 for 5, Pakistan were all but gone.

The offspinner Glenn Maxwell claimed his first international wicket, in his sixth match, when Nasir Jamshed, who top scored with 17, pushed a catch to cover. Abdul Razzaq and Yasir Arafat batted for a while, though not threatening to lift the run-rate, before Hogg was rewarded for his fine bowling when Arafat misread the wrong'un and was caught at slip for 15.

Hogg was then involved in the run-out of Umar Gul, before Cummins and Starc returned to claim a third wicket each as Pakistan were dismissed for 74 in the 20th over. It confirmed the 94-run margin - Pakistan's previous worst loss was 48 runs - but Pakistan will be keen to put this match out of their minds and remember the first two games when they head to Sri Lanka for the World T20.

Australia will go there with some confidence in their openers after they put on a 111-run stand, beating the previous Australian record opening stand of 104. When the Warner-Watson partnership ended Australia lost seven wickets for 57, and the slump was their only concern for the day, though it did not prove to be problematic.

Pakistan's fast bowlers helped Warner and Watson out with a few length deliveries that were dispatched to the boundary or over it early in the innings, and three sixes thumped over midwicket by Watson in one over from Shoaib Malik really got the Australian innings moving. Warner followed that with three sixes off Raza Hasan in the next over, and then showcased his switch-hitting ability by changing to a right-handed position and slogging Saeed Ajmal over the left-hander's cover for six.

He raced to his half-century from 28 deliveries and Watson seemed destined for a fifty as well, until he hooked Arafat's slower bouncer to short fine leg for 47 from 32 balls. Arafat, included at the expense of Sohail Tanvir, also got rid of Warner, who skied a catch for 59 from 34 balls. After that, the Australians couldn't find the same sort of momentum, although Maxwell, promoted to No.3, struck one hefty six in his 27 from 20 balls before he slog-swept Hasan to deep midwicket.

Only one other batsman managed a boundary: Michael Hussey, who scored 12 from 14 balls. It was to Pakistan's credit that they ran through the middle order so efficiently. Bailey was bowled for 3 when he tried to slog-sweep Ajmal; Cameron White was caught at long-on off Gul for a four-ball duck; and Hussey was bowled to give Ajmal figures of 2 for 19 from four overs.

Daniel Christian was the final man out, caught behind off Gul (2 for 30) in the final over, and the Australians finished with Matthew Wade on 6 and Cummins on 1. But it was what Cummins did with the ball that was most impressive.

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Pakistan eye clean sweep

 

With the series decided via the means of a Super Over, Pakistan and Australia are intent on some more high intensity preparation for the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka during the final match in Dubai. For Pakistan, the match provides a chance to employ some players not yet used, including Mohammad Sami and Yasir Arafat. It also offers the tantalising prospect of a clean sweep over Australia, something seldom achieved in any format.

The Australians, by contrast, are simply hopeful that the upward trend of their T20 form in the series - a hiding in the first match, a far better showing in the second - will continue with a victory to take them to Sri Lanka with some level of confidence. To that end, the only likely change to the team is the recall of the young allrounder Glenn Maxwell, whose hitting prowess could have been useful in the latter stages of the chase in game two. Australia's coach Mickey Arthur was satisfied with how the team's batsmen had attacked with conviction on Friday, David Warner in particular seeming to turn a corner in the belief he applied to his strokes.

But all that progress will be set back by another defeat, one that Pakistan will be keen to inflict and so leave Dubai with the greatest momentum possible for their tilt at the world title.

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Pakistan take series after Super Over

Seldom has the fickleness of Twenty20 been more evident. Pakistan claimed the series against Australia, but did so in circumstances as far removed from the hiding dealt out in the first match as could be imagined. Mohammad Hafeez's team celebrated their victory in the minutes after midnight in Dubai, yet George Bailey's Australians could also take solace from a much-improved display.

Two days after being routed for 89 on the way to a seven-wicket hiding, Australia scrapped to an enthralling tie. They owed much to the captain George Bailey, who on his 30th birthday compiled the most critical and substantial innings of his T20 career to date, proving his worth as a batsman as well as a captain in the process.

But it would be Pakistan's players who were to be jubilant after the extra deliveries were completed. Umar Gul conceded only one boundary in his Super Over while claiming David Warner's wicket, and the 11 runs Pat Cummins had to defend were to prove too few, the teenager delivering a motley collection of short balls that betrayed the draining effect of the contest and offered meat and drink to Umar Akmal and Abdul Razzaq. It was unfair that Cummins be left the loser, for it was he who struck a mighty six to tie the match up.

Warner and Shane Watson had earlier given Australia a suitably quick start before the top order experienced their now familiar difficulties with the high-class spin bowling of Saeed Ajmal. After three overs he had the figures of 2-10, but Ajmal's last ball was to be crashed over the boundary by Bailey to ease the pressure on Australia's chase. Ten were required off the final over, bowled by Razzaq, and Pakistan were expectant when Bailey fell. Cummins conjured a stunning six from the penultimate ball to level the scores, before miscuing the final delivery for a simple catch to force the use of the Super Over.

Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed provided the spine of Pakistan's innings with a stand of 76, broken only by a superlative catch by Dan Christian, before Umar and Kamran Akmal hit out freely at the finish in a union of 46. Mitchell Starc bowled with swing, speed and economy on his T20I debut to follow up some fine 50-over efforts in Sharjah, but Brad Hogg endured a more difficult outing and was attacked with some relish by Pakistan's batsmen.

Warner has struggled for batting momentum at times on this trip, but he made a swift start to the chase, punching Hafeez's first ball for six and prospering against the pacemen in the company of Shane Watson. However he was to prove no closer to extricating himself from Ajmal's web, bowled in the off spinner's first over having tried unsuccessfully to switch-hit his first ball.

The wicket brought an immediate halt to Australia's momentum, the rate slipping from almost 10 to less than seven in a handful of balls. Michael Hussey and Watson rallied briefly, before Ajmal's reintroduction had the vice-captain sweeping fatally. When Cameron White was thrown out from backward point the next over, Pakistan sensed a series win.

However Bailey, on his birthday, summoned some telling blows off both spinners and pacemen, overcoming a nervy start to make his most meaningful batting contribution since he was named Australia's T20 captain at the start of the year. Michael and David Hussey both perished, but Bailey kept the equation within sight when he pulled Ajmal's final delivery for a towering six.

Bailey brought the equation down to 12 to win from nine balls with consecutive boundaries off Gul, before Matthew Wade was run out to keep Pakistan breathing. Their pulse strengthened with Bailey's exit, but Cummins forced the contest into extra balls.

Having lost the toss, Australia's opening bowlers found some new ball movement. Hafeez snicked and stroked 12 from the first over of the match, while also surviving a desperately tight LBW appeal to a sharp in-swinger. Starc showed the swing and speed that had made him man of the ODI series, swerving one through Imran Nazir second ball.

Hafeez and Jamshed then combined for a noteworthy partnership, which alternated between the considered and the cantankerous in terms of strokeplay. Jamshed was the beneficiary of an uncharacteristic dropped catch by Michael Hussey from the bowling of his brother David, and capitalised by taking to Hogg in his first overseas international since 2007.

Jamshed's stay was ended by a stupendous diving snare from Dan Christian, sprinting with the flight of the ball and sticking out a despairing hand, then finding with great delight after he landed that the ball had stuck.Watson turfed a less difficult chance from Hafeez off Starc, though he atoned for the error by having Pakistan's captain caught in the deep the following over.

The run-rate had hovered around seven, and helped by a steady diet of full tosses the brothers Akmal took it past 7.5 in the closing overs. Umar would be called on for an encore, as Pakistan enjoyed the right side of the nearest run thing many of them will have seen

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Bailey floored by heavy defeat

Australia's captain George Bailey has admitted his side stands no chance of winning the World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka if their performances mirror a shattering first-up loss to Pakistan in the series in Dubai.

The seven-wicket hiding was Australia's heaviest in terms of balls to spare for the chasing team, after Bailey's men were shot out for a measly 89, their lowest total since England rolled Ricky Ponting's team for 79 in only their second T20I, at the Rose Bowl in 2005.

What's more, the Australians can now slip to 10th in the ICC's T20 rankings before the global event begins. Should Pakistan sweep the series - a possibility given the lopsidedness of the opening match - then Bailey's team will line-up for their tournament opener ranked below their opponents Ireland.

"I'm very disappointed and there's plenty to go away and work on," Bailey said. "You don't ever want to be setting those sorts of records. But in terms of the group we've got together and what we're capable of, it certainly hasn't altered my thoughts that we can still be a very good team.

"I still think we can win it. Definitely. Absolutely. I certainly don't think we'd win if we played like we did today. It's hopefully just a bad performance and one that you won't see again. Even if we gained a tiny bit of momentum, we gave it back by losing a wicket."

The poverty of Australia's batting was stark, unable to hit a six in the innings and striking only three boundaries. Bailey agreed that the top five had to do far, far better in future and put the match down as an experience that had to be learned from, particularly given the sorts of slow, spinning pitches also likely to be seen in the World T20 in Sri Lanka.

"Twenty20, all the stats we look at, you want your top four or five batsmen batting most of the innings," Bailey said. "So to be four down at the seven or eight over mark, we were certainly behind the game. We learned a lot about the wicket, but we already knew that Pakistan were going to be very competitive in this format, and that played very well."

Despite all players having taken part in the pre-season camp in Darwin where spin was a major consideration, and most then having the benefit of the ODI series against Pakistan in Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, Australia's efforts against the spinners were particularly poor. Bailey admitted improvements had to be made to what he described as a "real key" to the team's chances.

"The spinners are outstanding, and on the back of the one-day tournament the spinners were certainly the key to their bowling and our quicks were probably the key to ours," he said. "So it's a work in progress, it's going to be a real key the way we play spin and the way we play spin heading into the World Cup too, so we're working on it.

"In terms of the World Cup there's no better practice than playing against the world class spinners that Pakistan have in these three games."

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Fewer ODIs likely in Pakistan-Australia series

 

Pakistan's home series of limited-over games against Australia is likely to be reduced to a mix of three ODIs (instead of five ODIs) and three Twenty20 internationals, with the UAE remaining the most likely venue. Plans for more Twenty20 games - as reported by ESPNcricinfo yesterday - have come unstuck because of a time crunch to get the ICC's approval as required.

The series, according to PCB sources, will be held after the month of Ramadan, which ends on August 18; giving both teams practice ahead of the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, which begins on September 18. To beat the summer heat, the matches are likely to be held in the late evening, with the ODIs starting at 5 pm and the Twenty20 games at 7 pm.

"Plan is to play three ODIs and three T20Is," Intikhab Alam, the PCB's director for international operations, told reporters on Wednesday. "I have given my assessment reports about both venues [UAE and Malaysia] and the announcement will be made within this week."

Any Twenty20 series comprising more than three matches requires the ICC's permission; though the idea of a five-game series is open for discussion in the ICC Executive Board meeting later this month, formal approval might take some more time - which the boards don't have.

"We've always said to Pakistan this is your home, come and play when you want to and we make it cost-effective for them," Dilawar Mani, the chief executive of the Emirates cricket board, told ESPNcricinfo. "Yes it's going to be hot and humid, but heat is not as much of an issue as the humidity is."

"Humidity will be a factor, so we proposed a start later in the evening instead of 3 pm for ODIs," added Mani.

"We usually arrange late starts for our domestic tournament during Ramadan and I don't see any logistical problem there," he said. "In fact, arranging matches in evening works better - we can pull in bigger crowds as the offices close around 4 pm. So people can easily turn to the stadium after finishing their work."

Sri Lanka had originally emerged as a likely venue for the Pakistan-Australia series, but withdrew when it became apparent that the dates would clash with the Sri Lanka Premier League. Alam visited Malaysia and the UAE to assess options and, though weather is an issue in both places in August, the possibility of rain in Malaysia goes against it.

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