When and Where
Time: 9:00 AM (IST)
Venue: Adelaide Oval
The mighty Australians are all set to take on the most ‘unpredictable’ team of all time in the quarterfinals at Adelaide Oval. Yes. Pakistan it is!
So Far
Australia finished in the 2nd place in Pool A with 9 points whereas Pakistan ended in the 3rd position with 8 points in Pool B.
Aussies started their campaign with a convincing victory against England by 111 runs. The match against Bangla Tigers at Brisbane was abandoned due to rain.
Then came the real challenge against the Black Caps at Auckland which saw the so called mighty middle order of Australia tumble to the bowling attack of Daniel Vettori and Trent Boult. However, they came back again and showed their never-give-up attitude, only to lose the crucial encounter by 1 wicket. They turned their fortunes in a spark and won the upcoming matches against Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Scotland.
Pakistan on the other hand showed a poor display against their arch-rivals India in their opening game and lost the match against Windies by a huge margin of 150 runs. Victories against Zimbabwe and minnows UAE gave their fans a hope to stay in the tourney. And then the real magic happened. Defeating the Proteas at Auckland by D/L method and a limping victory over the Irish in a must win game enabled them enter the QFs with 8 points.
Head to Head
Overall
Played: 92
Australia 57 - 31 Pakistan
No results/Ties: 4
In World cup
Played: 8
Australia 4 - 4 Pakistan
No Result/Ties: 0
Australia: WWWLNR
Pakistan: WWWWL
Weather Report
Should be the perfect day for the match.
Pitch
The Adelaide Oval hosted three matches in this WC so far. On two occasions, teams batting first have won and Pakistan have defeated Ireland batting second. Adelaide has earned the tag ‘flat track,’ so the team which wins the toss will be looking forward to bat first and put up a big score on the board.
X – Factor
Glenn Maxwell, the big hitter has been consistent in this competition so far, hence it is necessary to look beyond him in naming the 'X-factor'. James Faulkner, who was touted to be the Lance Klusener of this World Cup must be the player to watch out for.
No matter what his form is, Shahid Afridi deserves the X-factor tag for Pakistan which is indeed an X-factor team and the most unpredictable ever.
The big number
190.37 – Glenn Maxwell's strike rate in the tournament so far. Being good at playing unorthodox shots, he will be a great threat to the opposition on any given day.
TEAM FOCUS
Australia
Predicted XI
Australia
The Aussies have the most jinxed up batting order so far in this tournament. Michael Clarke has gained some batting exposure by opening the innings against Scotland. David Warner who earned the tag 'minnow basher' by scoring a mammoth 178 against Afghanistan must prove his talent. So they will hope for Warner and Aaron Finch to fire in the first 10 overs. Shane Watson’s position is uncertain as he played a handy innings against the Lankans coming down the order as a four-down batsman.
Mitchell Starc who has scalped 16 wickets is the leading wicket taker so far and is sure to cause some headache to the opposition. Trump card, I would say. Xavier Doherty is likely to play as the pitch has some sort of spin-assistance. But they might well stick with the four-way pace attack if Clarke was given the pitch he wishes for.
David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steven Smith, Michael Clarke (c), Glenn Maxwell, Shane Watson, James Faulkner, Brad Haddin (wk), Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Xavier Doherty/Pat Cummins.
Pakistan
Things went wrong for Pakistan until Sarfraz Ahmed entered the playing XI and showed some class in his batting. Starc vs Sarfraz is an interesting contest to watch out for. There has been so much spoken about their middle order. Well, most of them are derogatory.
Mohammad Irfan’s injury is a major blow to their bowling attack as they have to heavily rely upon Wahab Riaz and Rahat Ali now. Rahat Ali is economical in the middle overs and his role will be tested against the Aussies. The spin department which had the likes of Saeed Ajmal and Mohammed Hafeez once upon a time now has a newbie Yasir Shah and he is yet to perform in the WC.
Given the inability of the Aussie batsmen to score runs against spinners off late, Misbah-ul-Haq will be keen on bringing Yasir into the playing XI instead of Ehsan Adil.
Predicted XI
Ahmed Shehzad, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Haris Sohail, Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Umar Akmal, Sohaib Maqsood, Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali, Yasir Shah/Ehsan Adil
And Pakistan be like ‘win the toss and bat first’ as they are good at defending and one can take it for granted that they are the weakest chasers so far among the top-8.
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