The first game on the final day of the league stage for the Champions Trophy will see Pakistan take on Australia. The match will be played at Centurion, and the equation for the Aussies is rather simple; they only need to beat the Pakistanis to get through to the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy. However, if they lose, they open up a chance for the Indians to go through if they are able to beat West Indies by a big enough margin.

Australia were doing well against the Indians when the rains had stuck and abandoned play. One can be rest assured that they will go in with the same line-up and bat in a similar manner against Pakistan - preserving wickets in the start and going after the bowlers in the end. However, what will be different for Australia is the quality of the opposition attack, which will comprise of the likes of Mohammad Aamer, Umar Gul and Naved Rana, all of whom have the tendency to hit the bat as opposed to the Indian seam bowlers.

Not only that, the spinners are of a much better quality what with the likes of Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi turning the ball on both sides of the wicket.

The Aussies have a decent bowling line-up too. But the issue is that they end up conceding many more runs than usual despite picking up the wickets at regular wickets. While my personal feel is that such bowlers could become a liability sometimes, against a side like Pakistan, it could work in their favour.

The Pakistan batting will again revolve around the likes of Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik, but the one batsman to look out for would be Umar Akmal. Akmal is the brother of Kamran, the wicket-keeper, and has had a great time batting. There have been enough traces of maturity in his batting, and despite getting out for a duck in the previous game, he could turn games around against a team like Australia.

Younus Khan would still be feeling the effects of the fracture he sustained, and so, if possible he should bat a little down the order. With Malik, Yousuf and Akmal in the kind of touch they are, it would be difficult to get them away from action. The list does not even include Shahid Afridi, whose position is a little low in the batting order. One may not be surprised to see him strutting out in the centre earlier, especially if an early wicket falls - and with the kind of starts the openers have been providing, it does look a possibility!

Tag :- Australia   Champions Trophy   Mohammad Aamer   Mohammad Yousuf   Naved Rana   Saeed Ajmal   Shahid Afridi   Shoaib Malik   Umar Akmal   Umar Gul