Pakistan vs Australia, 2nd ODI: Match Preview

After suffering from a huge eight-wicket defeat on Friday, Pakistan are looking to come back in the second One-day International against Australia, to be played today at 4.00 pm at the same venue – Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

This will be the 100th ODI to be played between the two teams. Australia are dominating the scene with 63 wins against Pakistan’s 32 whereas one match was tied and three gave no result.

Under inspiring captaincy of Aaron Finch, who led his team from the front with an unbeaten brilliant hundred, guiding Australia to a convincing victory, proved their supremacy over the inexperienced Pakistan team, who is playing without its six senior players including regular captain Sarfraz Ahmed.

Though Pakistani batsmen displayed good performance, scoring 280 on a slow pitch, as Haris made an unbeaten 101 with a valuable support from Umar Akmal (49) and debutant Shan Masood (40) but all their efforts went in vain as Australia chased down the daunting target, losing only two wickets.

Pakistani bowlers, including pacers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Abbas, and leg-spinner Yasir Shah, failed to stop Australians batting invasion.

Now for next matches, all pressure will be on the shoulders of veteran cricketer Shoaib Malik, who should boost his young players through his leadership skills and all-round talent to level the five-match series, being led by Australia 1-0.

Shoaib has a rich experience of playing 280 ODIs, scored 7390 runs with nine centuries and 43 half-centuries. He has also taken 156 wickets as an off-break bowler and held 96 catches as a fielder.

Shoaib has so far captained Pakistan in 39 One-day Internationals, winning 25 and losing 14 with an impressive success percentage of 64.10. Today’s match will be his 40th ODI as captain.

Squads

Pakistan: Shan Masood, Imam-ul-Haq, Haris Sohail, Umar Akmal, Abid Ali, Shoaib Malik (captain), Mohammad Rizwan, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Saad Ali, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Amir, Usman Shinwari, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain.

Australia: Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins, Alex Cavey, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Kane Richardson, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa, Ashton Turner.