The ODI series between Australia and Pakistan continues in Adelaide on Friday when the middle game of the three take place with the home side having the first of their two chances to wrap up proceedings.
Pakistan made a good fist of the opening game of the series but still went down to defeat and if they are to have any chance of winning overall they have to win this game and set up a deciding third game. Australia will want to end things at this first opportunity.
Australia
It looked like the opening game was going to be a stroll in the park for Australia but they soon found themselves in a bit of bother. To their credit, they had enough about them to get out of the mess that they had created for themselves and now they have set up a first chance to win the series. That was their first game of the summer so you would imagine that they will come on for the run but it goes without saying that they are going to need to if they want to be at their best.
To be fair to Australia, their bowlers did the job that they were assigned to do and did it very well in the main. They might have been a little disappointed that they couldn’t handle a late cameo from the lower Pakistan order but their problems arose when they had themselves 139-3 chasing relatively little, only to lose three wickets in four balls and make life a lot more difficult. That batting order will be looking to deliver a much stronger showing here.
Pakistan
Pakistan were a lot more competitive in the opening game in the end than they were probably expected to be but they had to rely on Australia to allow then back into the match in order for that to be the case. While they lost that opening game, they have a decent platform to build from when you consider that they were always going to come on for the run with some of their players coming off a home Test series which only finished a week before these ODI matches began.
If Pakistan are going to force a decider they will need to bat a lot better than they did in that opening game. It needed a late cameo to get them over 200 and it was only down to some sloppy play by their opponents that it even looked like a competitive score. If those batters do come on for the run then we saw in game one that their bowlers have the skills to get into a fringe Australia batting order and on a ground which might suit their whole team a lot better that gives them a hope of levelling the series.
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Team News
Josh Hazlewood is expected to come into the Australia XI for this match as he looks to maintain rhythm ahead of the Test series with India later in the month. Sean Abbott is the player who could miss out for the seamer.
Despite being forced to leave the field in the opening game, it looks like Naseem Shah only had cramp and so he is expected to be fit to feature in this match. Pakistan will consider playing a main spinner.
Betting
This should be an interesting match. In theory it should be much better than the opening one because both teams have had a run out and shaken off all of the rust that might have been there in terms of Australia and adjusted to the different conditions in the form of Pakistan. When you throw in the pitches in Adelaide not being as spicy as some in Australia which should allow Pakistan to have a fair crack of the whip with the bat so I’m expecting a high scoring match here.
The last time these two met in an ODI here there were 681 runs scored which is quite a number when you consider that we can get a 510.5 run line for this one. I have to think that is largely down to the opening game being low scoring but that was at the MCG where the boundaries are huge and the scores are probably reduced by 30 or 40 as a result of that. The last two first innings here have been 298/9 and 287/9 and the pitch is nearly always good here. I like the over in this one.
Tips
Back Over 510.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
