 Pakistan plays their first international game of the tour of England against Australia
in a T20I. This is a part of the two T20Is that the two sides will play on tour.
The game will be played at Edgbaston in Birmingham, and will see the Pakistanis
look to inflict more damage on the Aussies after their series loss to England.
The Aussies struggled though the first four ODIs of the series against England,
but the good news for them was that they managed to win the fourth ODI rather
easily. This was thanks to the presence of Shaun Tait, who had earlier been
considered a T20I bowler only.
Click for Live Score Card of Pakistan Vs Australia
This means that Tait's presence in the T20I game will count for a lot. After
all, his pace has now been backed by some good accuracy and that will mean that
the side will be benefitted a lot. In this year alone, Australia has played
three T20Is against Pakistan, and won each one of them, thanks to some exciting
cricket. The last games was the semi-final of the World T20, which saw the Pakistanis
lose a match that they should have easily win and that would have rubbed them
the wrong way.
Since then, the Pakistan cricket has undergone another round of controversy
and despite some good performances had crashed out of the first round of the
Asia Cup. Pakistan lost to India and Sri Lanka in successive games to
bow out, and this means that the side will now look to convert good performances
into something more wonderful.
Unfortunately, given the way the two sides have played in recent times, Australia
will go into the match as favourites and look to make the most of that. They
may have lost the series to England, but will prove to be a much stronger opposition
to Pakistan, whose batting currently relies heavily on the likes of Shahid Afridi and the Akmal brothers.
The bowling for Pakistan will be an interesting bit. Umar Gul has come
back and that should make things interesting for the side. With Michael Clarke
struggling with his batting form in the T20Is version, it does make sense for
the side to rally around him, but against an attack consisting of the likes
that it does for Pakistan, batting may not be too easy for the Aussies.
To me, there is hardly anything to choose from between the two sides, but I
will still say that Australia will be favourites to win this game.
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