Australia finish their tour of the UAE on Sunday evening when they take on Pakistan in the third and final T20 match in Dubai. Both sides have plenty of cricket to come in the next few weeks so although Pakistan have already clinched the series there is plenty to play for.
Australia have not really got going on this tour and will want to depart having at least offered something for their efforts while Pakistan have New Zealand to come later in the week and keeping their form will be high on their list of priorities.
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Pakistan
It says plenty about the quality of Pakistan in this format that we have not seen even close to the best of them in this series. They have never really got going with the bat but on both occasions they have had miles in hand in terms of the winning margins. If they do click with the bat at any point they will be confident of getting the job done in much more comfortable fashion.
The truth is that they only need their batting line up to be solid rather than spectacular because their bowling attack in these conditions is very tough to face. They know when to attack the stumps and when not to and they also know when to mix up their pace and when to go full pelt. The amazing thing is that doesn’t change regardless of which bowlers they use, such is the amount of quality available to them.
Australia
You had the feeling that Australia were always going to struggle in these conditions and you can understand and appreciate that but what will have disappointed them is the way they have given their wickets away in the first two matches. We have seen some incredibly bad shots from them and some very indifferent running between the wickets which have given Pakistan the leg up they never really needed.
If Australia can just rein things in and knock it about a bit and build a platform for their hitters then there is no reason why they couldn’t win this final match because their bowlers have generally gone pretty well in the main. They will need to keep the pressure on the Pakistan batsmen again if they want to win but there is no reason why that can’t happen.
Team News
It remains to be seen whether Pakistan want to make changes to their side. They play again on Wednesday so resting a couple of bowlers would make sense. With that in mind Waqas Mahsood could be given a debut.
There was talk during the previous match that Mitchell Starc could return from injury here but that wouldn’t really make a whole lot of sense given that the series is over. Nathan Lyon could come into the side for this one though.
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Betting
Regular readers will know I’m not a huge fan of betting on dead rubbers and that remains the case here. I would expect both sides to alter their teams a little bit for the match and nobody truly knows how that will effect things so the match outcome markets have little interest to me here. I will go with one bet though.
That comes in the form of the player performance of Glenn Maxwell. If there was going to be an Australian player who would go well in these conditions it would be Maxwell and he showed that to be the case in the previous match when he smoked a 50. He has a line of 32.5 which he can easily cover with the bat but his bowling really should be being used a lot more and he’s a dynamite fielder too. Adding the three scoring methods together should see him clear 32.5pts.
Tips
Back G.Maxwell’s Performance – Over 32.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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