Hello and welcome to the LIVE coverage from the third quarterfinal between Australia and Pakistan at Adelaide. Scorecard
Misbah-ul-Haq yet again tried to to steer Pakistan to safe waters. Interestingly, Misbah has his own method of constructing an innings. Even when the pacers bowled half volleys, he looked to defend on the front foot. However, as soon as Glenn Maxwell came into the attack, he thwacked the offspinner for two sixes. Just in the nick of time though, Maxwell dismissed Misbah, with Aaron Finch taking an excellent catch in the deep.
His partner at the other end, Haris Sohail, played some fine shots, but had his moments of indiscretion, where he looked to slog across the line. With the current field restrictions around, it is easier to target over mid-on and mid-off regions. Australian bowlers joining all those dots eventually, led to the dismissal of Haris and his wicket was snared by Mitchell Johnson. To make it worse for Pakistan, Umar Akmal threw his wicket away by getting out to Maxwell. For them to post a competitive total, they need Shahid Afridi to fire on all cylinders.
Teams:
Australia: David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steven Smith, Michael Clarke(c), Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell, Brad Haddin(w), James Faulkner, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood
Pakistan: Ahmed Shehzad, Sarfraz Ahmed(w), Haris Sohail, Misbah-ul-Haq(c), Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali, Ehsan Adil
Toss and team news: Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat. Australia have made one change to their team by replacing Pat Cummins with Josh Hazlewood, while Pakistan are unchanged.
Preview: Hosts Australia will have to counter a rising and unpredictable Pakistan in the third cricket World Cup quarter-final at the Adelaide Oval.
While four-time World Cup winners Australia can easily be termed as favourites going by the past performance and the arsenal they possess, pressure of expectations will be high on Michael Clarke’s men.
They finished second in Pool A with four wins. They lost a match against New Zealand and shared a point with Bangladesh due to rain. They will once again be hoping to overcome the pressure of expectations and Pakistan on a pitch expected to suit fast bowlers.
Meanwhile Misbah-ul Haq’s Pakistan are on a roll. They won four consecutive matches to enter the last eight contest after losing the first two games against India and the West Indies.
The worry for Pakistan will be whether it can weather Australia’s bowling attack, as only one Pakistani player has hit a century in the tournament so far, and that was only in the dying stages of their win over Ireland last week.
icc cricket world cup 2015 schedule
icc cricket world cup 2015 fixtures
icc cricket world cup 2015 venues
icc cricket world cup 2015 groups
icc cricket world cup 2015 time table
icc cricket world cup 2019
icc cricket world cup 2015 teams
icc cricket rankings
World Cup Live Score: Australia vs Pakistan, 3rd Quarterfinal
