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Pakistan vs Australia ODI: 1st One Day International live scores, blog

7th October, 2014
Squads:

Pakistan:
Ahmed Shahzad, Umar Amin, Sohaib Maqsood, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal (wk)/Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Raza Hasan, Zulfiqar Babar, Mohammad Irfan.

Australia:
Aaron Finch, David Warner, Steven Smith/Phillip Hughes, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Brad Haddin, James Faulkner, Mitchell Johnson, Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon.
Aaron Finch will benefit from a rejuvenated coaching structure in Victoria. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Roar Guru
7th October, 2014
204
1325 Reads

With a morale-boosting win in the one-off T20I in Dubai, Australia will take a lot of confidence going into the opening ODI of their series against Pakistan . Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 9:00pm (AEDT).

Australia may not want to attach too much importance to a T20I victory but they will be cock-a-hoop over the manner of their win.

The conditions were tailor-made for the ‘hosts’ Pakistan. The ball spun from the word go and Pakistan got first use of the pitch to bat on as well.

The heat and humidity suited them too and it could have led to a typical result in a format that hasn’t been Australia’s favourite in recent times.

Instead Australia used the spinning pitch to their advantage and crashed through Pakistan’s batting order.

Pakistan did miss two of their players, two vital spinners in Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez but that does not take away from the fact that the Aussie slow bowlers sent down a total of eight overs between them, conceded 27 runs and picked up five wickets.

It was a taste of their own medicine for the Pakistani side.

What should not go down too well for Pakistan is the manner in which they went down.

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Most of their top-order batsmen fell playing shots before getting their eye in. It’s one thing to attempt slogging your way out of trouble and quite another to invite trouble by going after the bowling within the first seven balls of your innings, as was the case with five of their top seven batsmen.

The sense one also got from that T20I was that the Australian batsmen did have trouble against the spin bowlers, as has usually been the case in recent times, but Pakistan did not have too many overs from their frontline spinners in their kitty.

Captain Bailey, standing in for the hamstrung Michael Clarke, admitted that the side was looking to improve playing against spin bowling but it continued to remain a challenge for now. The absence of Ajmal should help.

Australia could also welcome back Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Lyon and it will be interesting to see how both go.

Johnson will be returning from an injury and if fully fit, has the ability to put fear in the opposition batsmen’s minds while Lyon did go for a few in the tri-series in Zimbabwe. On pitches that assist slow bowling, but against batsmen who play spin better than most, Lyon could be in for a challenging battle.

Misbah will return to skipper Pakistan after Shahid Afridi’s stint as the T20I captain and his batting in the middle of the innings could play an instrumental role in getting Pakistan through tricky phases.

He will also be a calming presence to the side, something that they sorely lacked in the T20I on Sunday evening.

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Join me for this ​first ODI between Pakistan and Australia on ​Sunday here and you can follow the live score of this game from ​9:00pm(AEDT) and post your comments below.

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