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[VIDEO] Australia vs Pakistan highlights: World Cup quarter final scores, blog

20th March, 2015
Time: 2:30pm (AEDT)
Venue: Adelaide Oval
TV: Nine Network (LIVE), Fox Sports (LIVE)
Betting: Aus $1.17, Pak $5.00
Glenn Maxwell is rocks and diamonds, meaning he keeps getting overlooked. (AFP / Theo Karanikos)
Roar Guru
20th March, 2015
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20898 Reads

Australia start favourites to overwhelm Pakistan in their 2015 World Cup quarter-final but their mercurial opponents will look to derive a slice of the X-factor from their four successive wins leading up to their game. You can follow the live blog of this game from 2:30pm (AEDT) and post your comments below.

The start-stop nature of Australia’s run to their quarter-final, the distraction over Michael Clarke’s fitness and a bit of doubt over their playing XI are some of the reasons why Pakistan fans will believe Australia is beatable on their day.

On the other hand, they will also take heart from the way their team has played. Pakistan, who had begun the tournament with successive defeats against India and West Indies – and crushing ones at that – have made a miraculous recovery from there and strung together four successive wins. And for a major part, it’s been their bowlers who have led them to those wins.

It has almost seemed like the Pakistan of old, that from the 1992 World Cup was back and roaring during those previous matches, which included a win over South Africa as well. Of course, their real test will begin now when they take on the favourites and hosts Australia in this knock-out game.

Since their defeat to New Zealand, Australia have regrouped reasonably well, although a rain-affected game against Scotland threatened to make life difficult for them. Had they split points with their opponents in that game because of the weather, Australia would have been playing a lot tougher quarter-final against South Africa.

The rain relented and they finished off the game very quickly after that.

What was interesting about that match was the amount of criticism that Michael Clarke got for getting himself to open the innings instead of pushing the likes of David Warner, Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell to make a dash for it knowing what the weather was like.

Before the World Cup started, there were talks of how Clarke’s conditional selection will make for a big distraction for the side. On-field performances have not given that indication over the previous few wins but what’s definitely changed is that the captain’s detractors have found a stronger voice.

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In a strange sort of a way, that has manifested itself into a negative view about their own team’s chances in this game. The official Cricket Australia news site has had a poll running where about 45% of the people have called it a Pakistan win and while it’s not known how many of those are Pakistanis, there is a fair chance that a lot of them are Australian voters.

Pakistan have lost one of their main fast bowlers, Mohammad Irfan, to injury and went in with a fast bowling quartet of Sohail Khan, Ehsan Adil, Rahat Ali and Wahab Riaz for their must-win Ireland game. Whether they repeat the same against Australia could be dependent on how the pitch is expected to behave.

There will be a big temptation from Pakistan to bring in leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who has played just a single match this competition so far. He has a brilliant record in a couple of Tests he played against the Aussies late last year but a lot could be pitch-dependent.

There have been talks of the Adelaide track being green for this game but it will be interesting to see how that comes about on the morning of the game.

Australia’s playing XI has a question-mark too – who do they play as their third seamer, Josh Hazlewood or Pat Cummins. It’s been tough to decide on that but if the grass does not get shaved off, Hazlewood’s movement off the seam could become a factor.

Follow the live scores and blog of this Australia vs Pakistan World Cup 2015 encounter from 2:30pm AEDT on Friday and post your comments ​in the section ​below.

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