For Pakistan the next match is not semi final it is the finals, Australia has been the team to beat through out this tournament if Pakistan manages to beat Australia they will carry forward a huge psychological advantage and momentum in the finals.
But Pakistan will have to lift themselves up emotionally and psychologically to beat this Aussie team, it seems that Pakistan team has an inferiority complex while facing Australia, they never have the conviction that they can beat Australia the dismal tour of Australia seriously dented their confidence.
It’s a win or go home situation for Pakistan, the players should be prepared for a dog fight with the Australian team but in order to do that Pakistan team will have to play out of it’s skin. they will have to devise a smart plan to exploit the strengths of Pak team and the weaknesses of the Australian team.
This Pakistan team can’t match Australia pound to pound, their pace attack is inferior to that of Australia, but their spin battery is superior than Australia’s, while batting they will have to pick a few bowlers for launching an attack and will have to bat conservatively against the likes of Johnson and tait. In batting if Pakistan controls Warner, Watson and White they can restrict Australia to a lower score, Warner has been a suspect against quality spin bowling and Pakistan during the last year have been too generous with Watson they atleast give him 2-3 lives in every match this will have to stop.
On paper Australia has a very strong batting lineup but it is relatively inexperienced one and hasn’t been tested in pressure situations, Clarke’s form is not great, they are largely relying on the three W’s and Hussey for the bulk of their runs, in T20 match if you have four inform batsmen that is more than enough so Pakistan will have to attack these four and make a plan to take them out early.
Pakistan’s batting has looked fragile but it has depth and variety they have scored the most runs against Australia in this competition and their batting looked the most comfortable against Australian quick bowlers, the rest of the teams just melted infront of Aussie pace attack just this fact alone gives me satisfaction that maybe we deserved to be in the semi finals.
Against Bangladesh and against Srilanka Australian openers got out quickly and these are the only two matches where the Aussie team couldn’t post a mammoth total. Afridi made a bold move by opening the bowling with Hafeez against Australia in group match but the move back fired as Afridi didn’t picked the right bowler, I think Spin should be introduced early if the pacers are unable to remove Warner. Rahman or Ajmal should bowl early.
Misbah has been a major weak link in Pakistan’s batting, Pakistan should drop Misbah and Latif and should play Fawad and Sami instead. Pakistan should carefully plan their innings they should try not to be over aggressive in the first six overs and should play proper cricketing shots rather than slogging, Salman butt’s wicket will be the key for the Aussies he should play to his strength and should avoid ugly hook and pull shots. There have been calls from certain quarters to include Hammad Azam in the side I think that would be ridiculous as he doesn’t have the game to perform at this level as of yet and Pakistan should refrain from further experimentation.
Hafeez is another player who hasn’t delivered despite his good form he will have to focus on building his innings he has the form to do that but mentally he will have to lift himself up.
Afridi has been most successful when he bowls in tandem with Ajmal, in the last encounter between the two teams Afridi got a bit of beating I hope that he will perform differently in this match as he holds the key to Pakistan’s success in bowling alongwith Ajmal.
My biggest dissappointement has been Aamer eventhough he hasn’t given too many runs but has failed to get Pakistan initial breakthroughs, it’s disappointing because under Waqar he was supposed to improve he bowled well against Australia in the first game but after that he didn’t caused any problems for other teams, he should adopt the role of a wicket taking bowler rather than worrying too much about his econ rate, he hasn’t used Yorkers regularly neither he tries to swing or seam the bowl bowling flat out fast back of length will not get him wickets, he will have to mix his pace and length.
Razzaq bowled well in the last two matches but his biggest test will be against Australia his bowling will probably set the tone of Australian innings he will have to bowl two good overs for Pakistan.
The Aussie team has a lot of depth both in batting and bowling they are mentally tough and play extremely aggressively Pakistan will have to lift their fielding up and match the intensity level of the Aussies to put them under pressure. They should give the Australians a dog fight and if they manage to do that the result will be in Pakistan’s favor as this young Aussie team doesn’t know how to play under pressure.
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