Australia and Pakistan will get their ODI series underway on Friday when the two sides meet in the first of five matches in Brisbane. Although this is a longer series than many we get to see these days both sides will be looking to get off to a fast start and gain some confidence to build on.
Australia
All eyes will be on Australia in both this match and this series. The country has been enjoying the wonderful Big Bash tournament recently and their players will be expected to deliver not just a win but plenty of entertainment with it. The majority of their players have featured in that tournament so they should be used to the white ball.
One of the strengths of Australia in this format historically has been the quality of their bowling attack and while they are going to rotate their bowlers in this series the Big Bash has thrown up some decent options for them to use and it will be interesting to see how they settle on their international debuts.
Pakistan
Although they lost the Test series 3-0 Pakistan were more competitive than that at times. A couple of poor final days gave the scoreline a bit of a one sided gloss to it so they may well feel they have plenty to prove going into this series. They will hope their reinforcements do some damage to help them along their way.
Pakistan are known for the quality of their bowling attack and they will need them to stand up and deliver more than ever in this series but the five matches may well come down to how well Pakistan bat. We know these aren’t familiar conditions but if they can find a way to regularly put up 300+ scores they will have every chance.
Team News
Australia have already announced their side for the match. Billy Stanlake will be given an ODI debut as will Chris Lynn but Josh Hazlewood is being rested. Travis Head will partner Dave Warner at the top of the order.
Pakistan will be without Sarfraz Ahmed as the wicket-keeper has gone home to deal with a situation with his mother. Sharjeel Khan, Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik have all joined up with the squad and are set to play.
Brisbane Cricket Ground
This is the 77th ODI to be held on this ground. Australia have a stunning record in Test matches here but it is a little more level in ODIs. They have 22 wins to 14 defeats with four no results while Pakistan have a 7-8 record here with one no result.
This is well known to be the best batting track in the country so we should be expecting a high scoring opening match. If there is anything in it for the bowlers it will probably come later in the innings when the ball goes a little softer.
Betting
There are two bets I like in this match. Although this ground is hard to defend I’m not convinced Pakistan have the batting depth and quality without Sarfraz to take advantage of that if they do bat second so I expect Australia to win the game and I think a theme of the series will be them hitting the most sixes. They have been range hitting for a while now with the Big Bash underway and getting this Australia attack away is never easy so the 8/11 on Australia to win and hit the most sixes looks good to me.
Speaking of sixes I can’t ignore the insane price on Chris Lynn to hit one. He has pretty much dealt only in that denomination for the last three weeks and has admitted he finds it easier to hit sixes than fours. Clearly hitting this attack will be harder than hitting his way through the Big Bash but this is his home ground so he will at least know where to target. He hits so many sixes that more than 2/1 on one here is just too big.
Tips
WON – Back Australia to hit most sixes and win the match for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Paddy Power
Back them here:
WON – Back C.Lynn Over 0.5 sixes for a 2/10 stake at 3.40 with Coral
Back him here:
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