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Match facts

Mohammad Hafeez needs to improve on a poor record against Australia•AFP

August 31-September 1, 2012
Start time 1800 (1400 GMT)

Big Picture

So in a familiar location, Pakistan find themselves in a familiar situation – behind against Australia, and needing a victory to keep the series alive. Having not beaten the Australians in an ODI series since 2002, there remains a sense of self-doubt about the way Pakistan confront these opponents. Their sage captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, diagnosed an inability to “read the match situation well”, after the lower order had folded to offer Michael Clarke’s team a sub-prime target in Sharjah.This was true, but so too is the fact that no-one on either side knows a reality other than that in which Australia defeats Pakistan repeatedly. Clarke has a singularly dominant record against Pakistan, and by contrast many of the subcontinental side’s more seasoned players have a gap in their records when it comes to Australia. Even with the disadvantages of conditions and time zones, Australia play with a level of confidence against Pakistan derived from the belief that composure will win out over talent and impetuosity, as well as Misbah has done to stabilise the moods of his team.In Abu Dhabi the Pakistanis will need to overcome this mental hurdle as much as anything else if they are to take the series to a third match. For Clarke’s Australians, their obstacle is that of consistency – the accumulation of winning sequences has been a rare thing indeed in 2012. Not once has the team won more than two limited overs matches in a row, and victory in this match would make a hat-trick after the defeat of Afghanistan in the tour opener.

Form guide (Complete matches, most recent first)

Pakistan LLLLW
Australia WWLLL

Watch out for

Among Pakistan players, the contrast between the overall record and that against Australia does not come much more stark than that of Mohammad Hafeez. His ascent to the top of the ICC’s rankings in numerous disciplines and formats may have surprised several of the Australians, given that as a batsman he has never passed 13 against them. While Hafeez did excel with the ball in Sharjah, it is as a top order batsman that Pakistan will need him to lift in Abu Dhabi.David Warner did little to dissuade critics of his play against quality spin during game one, struggling for rhythm against Hafeez and then throwing his innings away with a panicked slog. Abu Dhabi’s surface is likely to offer Warner a little more pace onto the bat, which should help his array of strokes. Australia’s chances of a total that is handsome and not merely sturdy depend greatly on Warner’s capacity to provide momentum at the top.

Team news

Following Australia’s travails against spin in the first match, Pakistan can be expected to call in the left-arm spin of Abdur Rehman, perhaps at the expense of Aizaz Cheema, who struggled for impact as the second seamer.Pakistan (squad) Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Aizaz Cheema, Saeed Ajmal, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Abdur Rehman, Junaid Khan, Anwar AliXavier Doherty will be hopeful of a recall to the Australian XI, but the success of a deep batting line-up and the use of part-time spinners in the opening match may mean Clarke sticks with the combination that gave him a 1-0 series lead.Australia (possible) 1 Matthew Wade (wk), 2 David Warner, 3 Michael Clarke (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 David Hussey, 6 George Bailey, 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Daniel Christian, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Mitchell Starc, 11 James Pattinson

Pitch and conditions

Abu Dhabi’s surface is known to offer more pace than those of Sharjah or Dubai, but with the temperature forecast to touch 44C during the day there is unlikely to be much moisture to be found in the surface.

Stats and trivia

• Australia won both the previous two meetings between the teams in Abu Dhabi, by 27 runs then eight wickets in April and May 2009
• Michael Clarke was dominant in both matches, making 66 and taking 3-15 in the first game, before notching an unbeaten century in the second
  

  Quotes

  “We committed mistakes, mistakes we have been repeating in the last two or three series but we can’t win matches if we continue to do that.”
  “There’s enough there for both fast bowlers and spin [on the Abu Dhabi pitch]. I’d love to see somebody in our top four go on and make a big score, make a hundred. I’ve got two starts and I haven’t been able to go on. I think heat is certainly a factor.”

Thirteen young South African cricketers nominated by the national board will take part in a nine-day training session in Bangalore to prepare for their domestic season, which starts next month. The squad – comprising six batsmen, six spinners and a fast bowler – will to be coached by former India spinner Sunil Joshi, among others.One of the focus areas is developing a generation of black batsmen – South Africa have never had a black African batsman. “We identified some of the most talented black African batsmen in an attempt to further develop their skill set,” CSA’s General Manager Corrie van Zyl said.Another target, he said, was to help spinners develop, and to allow batsmen to learn playing spin on spin-friendly pitches.Former South Africa spinner Nicky Boje will accompany the squad in the absence of Paul Adams, who resigned as CSA’s spin consultant to take up coaching responsibilities for the domestic team Cape Cobras in June.”[Boje] is a fantastic person to mentor our next generation of spinners and we look forward to calling upon his expertise to ensure proper development of our spin bowlers,” van Zyl said.The squad:Spinners: Dane Piedt (Cape Cobras), Siya Simetu (Cape Cobras), Eddie Leie (Highveld Lions), Simon Harmer (Warriors), Shaun Von Berg (Titans), and Tabraiz Shamsi (Dolphins)Fast bowler: Ayavuya Myoli (Border)Batsmen: Khaya Zondo (Dolphins), Omphile Ramela (Highveld Lions), Grant Mokoena (Highveld Lions), Tumelo Bodibe (Titans), Mangeliso Mosehle (Titans), and Luthando Mnyanda (South Western Districts)

Ireland v Afghanistan – Match Abandoned
The first World Cricket League ODI was abandoned without a ball bowled despite pleasant conditions at Clontarf. Ireland and Afghanistan share the points which gives the home side a one point lead over UAE at the top of the table.Despite a balmy day in north Dublin, and a stiff drying breeze, the inundation of the previous week had taken its toll on the outfield. The umpires suggested to the players that they remain in their hotel till noon as the ground remained sodden after heavy rain hit the ground in mid-afternoon on Tuesday.The Irish physio remained buoyant, although he denied that he has been more concerned with trench foot than hamstrings this week.The run-ups at the Killester End were the problem on the original date, and their condition appeared to have worsened on the reserve day. The noon inspection led the umpires to resolve to meet again at 2pm, by which they decided that there was no chance of the run-ups drying sufficiently by 4.40pm to allow a 20-over game.Ireland coach Phil Simmons said: “The run ups were too wet, it was the correct decision by the umpires. It’s a good pouint for us, and it puts the Afghans under pressure. I fancy our chances over 50 overs, a shortened game is more to their advantage.”The doughty Clontarf groundstaff were hopeful that the weather would remain fine in the evening to allow the second World Cup qualifier to take place on Thursday. With most of Ireland’s home fixtures set to move to the new Malahide arena next summer, the Clontarf club is keen to say goodbye to international cricket in something more than a damp whimper.

Ravi Bopara, the Essex and England batsman, will begin his comeback from the thigh injury that ruled him out of the first two Tests against West Indies in Rotterdam when he faces Netherlands in a CB40 tie on Tuesday.Bopara has only one other one-day match for Essex, against Gloucestershire at Chelmsford next Monday, ahead of the final Test against West Indies, which begins at Edgbaston on June 7, so making it difficult for him to press his claims for a return to the Test side.Bopara injured his thigh while bowling a few days before the first Test, paving the way for Jonny Bairstow to make his Test debut at Lord’s and subsequently win a second cap in an uncomfortable performance against the West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach.With England’s county schedule turning primarily to one-day cricket in the weeks ahead, Bopara’s realistic target is to prove his fitness in time to return to England’s squad for three ODIs and a T20 against West Indies next month.Bopara has suffered two untimely injuries which have prevented him adding to 12 Test caps. He was in line for a recall against Sri Lanka earlier this year after Eoin Morgan was dropped but picked up a side strain which prevented him from bowling and Samit Patel was preferred with England keen for a fifth-bowling option in hot conditions.Bopara replaced Patel at the start of the English summer but ill luck struck again when he suffered a grade one tear after bowling only one over against Kent at Chelmsford and his attempts to bat with a runner later in the match merely emphasised that he would not recover fitness in time.Essex will be grateful for Bopara’s return. Their last trip to the Netherlands was no pushover as they sneaked victory by a single run. They are still seeking their first win in this year’s competition while Netherlands’ three matches to date have brought them wins against Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.

ScorecardSteven Mullaney steered Nottinghamshire away from trouble before Andrew Strauss ensured there would be no hiccups for Middlesex•Getty Images

Regardless of the merits or otherwise of his playing county cricket during a wet English spring, Middlesex were grateful for the steady hand of Andrew Strauss to guide them to a draw at Trent Bridge, where the England Test captain completed his competitive preparations for the series against West Indies by compiling an unbeaten 43.Like the four innings for his county that preceded it, this one was not without flaws. It should have ended on 26, when he was dropped at the wicket off his international team-mate Stuart Broad, but otherwise demonstrated that he is timing his shots well enough. He hit seven boundaries, two off Broad, who bowled better than previously in the two matches he has played since returning from injury, four off the left-armer Harry Gurney, who dismissed him in the first innings, and one off Adams, all from authentic strokes.He did not save the game for Middlesex – that honour remains with Ollie Rayner, the heroic nightwatchman of their first innings – but he and Sam Robson for the most part ensured that Nottinghamshire’s optimistic visions of a match-winning clutch of wickets from Broad or Graeme Swann were quickly stifled.In fact, on a flat and relatively dry surface that did not deteriorate to any significant degree, Nottinghamshire’s prospects of taking 10 wickets in 51 overs were not particularly realistic. Middlesex, who had been set a target of 298 to win, were not even interested, deciding reasonably enough that having avoided the follow-on on the back of Rayner’s unbeaten 143 they would not risk letting their offspinner’s finest hour go to waste.It is not something Rayner will forget, not least because it happened on a day when he confidently expected to have been performing best-man duties at a cousin’s wedding in Middlesbrough.”I was originally in a second-team game against Warwickshire that was rained off, after which it was agreed that I would do two days here as 12th man and then go up to Middlesbrough for the wedding on Friday,” he said. “But then we turned up here and it was dry and I got the go-ahead to play. I was not going to turn down the opportunity. When Finny and Strauss came back into the team I looked down the team-sheet and I couldn’t see anyone that was going to be dropped except me.”So when I am selected I want to make myself as prominent as possible. I was not too happy about going in as nightwatchman to be honest. I think I’m a bit better than that now. But when I was out there I thought I’d better make the most of it and Friday was just top drawer.”Not surprisingly, he was a willing interviewee, which could not be said for Strauss, who declined the opportunity to discuss the 100 runs he has made in his five innings over the last three weeks or so. Not that there is a lot he could have said, other than the obvious. He was unfortunate to run into two identically excellent deliveries when Graham Onions dismissed him cheaply twice in the first of his three outings and was undone by another good one when Gurney removed him in the first innings here. It can happen.Perhaps Michael Vaughan was right to suggest he would have been better off in the nets, although this outing did at least enable him to reacquaint himself with conditions that did not excessively favour the ball. It was too good a surface, in the end, failing to deliver the help Nottinghamshire had hoped might have been there for Swann, the England offspinner, as they sought to secure a fourth win from six matches and cement their lead in Division One.But at least there were signs of improvement from Broad, who looked as out of sorts in the first innings here as he did at Old Trafford last week. “He bowled as well as he has so far,” Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, said afterwards.”He is a bowler who needs overs under his belt to find his rhythm. Whereas someone like [James] Anderson is able to get it back right away, which comes with experience and age, Stuart needs to bowl. He has been a bit rusty but he felt he bowled better today and that can only hold him in good stead for next week.”Nottinghamshire sit out the next round of county matches, giving Warwickshire the chance to regain top place when they play Lancashire at Edgbaston from Wednesday onwards, and Newell recognises that he will have a selection dilemma when his side meets Sussex, starting on May 25, after Steven Mullaney scored half-centuries in both innings after taking one of the places vacated when James Taylor and Samit Patel were called up for England Lions.”I expect to have those two back and will have Adam Voges available for the first time, so there will be eight batsman vying for six places,” Newell said. “It is a difficult one. Steven lost a bit of confidence last season after being hit on the head but he played very well in this match and made a good case for himself.”

Match facts

Thursday, April 19, Delhi
Start time 1600 (1030 GMT)Daredevils are riding high on their success train•Hindustan Times

Big picture

Delhi Daredevils’ stocks in the tournament have risen higher after their bowlers masterminded a seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians. While other teams have been busy putting up and chasing down totals in excess of 160, Daredevils’ hustling pace has razed three strong batting line-ups to scores below 110. The only game that they lost was to Royal Challengers Bangalore, partially due to the inexperience of their middle order and partially, due to the guile of Muttiah Muralitharan who took three wickets. However, that batting order has been beefed up since then. With the influx of Ross Taylor in the last game, their batting looks as intimidating as their bowling. Daredevils will need to be careful though, as their batting firepower hasn’t been tested yet. In all four games, they have batted second after their bowlers had done the job.Deccan Chargers on the other hand have lost three games in a row – the last two slipped through their fingers. Although such defeats can be disheartening, Kumar Sangakkara could take positives out from the fact that their relatively inexperienced team has had their chances. They have just missed that one last push. Dale Steyn and Amit Mishra will both need to fire in tandem and their fielding needs to inspire.Daredevils test is as hard as it gets for Chargers. It could be a daunting challenge, but it could also kindle the fire inside the big names among Chargers’ ranks. Both teams will hope to win the toss and avoid fielding first in the sun. However, sun or no sun, Daredevils bowlers should be a handful.

Players to watch

Umesh Yadav has been cranking up the pace in every game and has proven to be a difficult bowler to hit. In his last match, he took out Kieron Pollard and Dinesh Karthik, beating both batsmen for pace. Such was his accuracy that he didn’t give away a single boundary in his four-over spell.Chargers replaced a struggling Cameron White with JP Duminy and his 26-ball 58 pushed the team to 196, which had looked improbable. Duminy, who hit five sixes in his innings, can also hold an innings together if required.

2011 head-to-head

Daredevils played Chargers twice in 2011. They lost their home game by 16 runs while a Sehwag century helped them win the second by four wickets in Hyderabad.

Stats and trivia

• Sehwag’s 32 against Mumbai Indians came in 36 balls. In all Twenty20 innings where he has scored more than 20, this was his slowest innings.
• This year, the three most economical spells (four overs) have been bowled by Yadav (2-11), Dale Steyn (3-12) and Irfan Pathan (1-12).
• Chargers have played the Daredevils nine times in IPL. They have won four and lost five of these games. However, in Delhi, the record is 2-1 in favour of Chargers.
  

  Quotes

  “We would work more on the fielding. We were working on it earlier too but now we would stress on it a bit more.”

  “He gave me a call and was worried for my injury. But he is now happy seeing me back in action.”
  .

Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain, has said that offspinner Harbhajan Singh has the ability to lead the national team following his showing for his IPL franchise, Mumbai Indians. Harbhajan has not featured in India’s Test or ODI squad since August 2011.He returned home mid-way through India’s 4-0 Test whitewash in England, after picking up an abdominal muscle strain, and was not picked for the home series against England and West Indies, the tour of Australia or the Asia Cup. However, during this period he had captained Mumbai Indians, in place of an injured Sachin Tendulkar, to the Champions League T20 title. Earlier this week, in wake of Tendulkar’s decision to stand down from the post just before the start of IPL V, he was named the franchise’s permanent captain.”Harbhajan’s captaincy was brilliant in the Champions League and yesterday too,” Ganguly told , referring to the opening game of the IPL, in which Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets. He said Harbhajan’s body language as captain had been “terrific”. “He has the ability to lead India some day. I have always said I will have Harbhajan in my side.”Ganguly also said Tendulkar was a “reluctant” leader. “We have seen in the past that he [Tendulkar] is a reluctant captain. It’s his personal decision. And also, it has got to do with Bhajji [Harbhajan] winning the Champions League.”As captain of the Pune Warriors IPL team, Ganguly will go up against Harbhajan when Warriors take on Mumbai Indians on Friday at the Wankhede Stadium.

ScorecardMichael Beer took 7 for 46, his first haul of more than three wickets in a first-class innings, after Liam Davis had soared to a triple century as Western Australia minced New South Wales by an innings and 323 runs in the Sheffield Shield match in Perth.The result, the biggest margin of victory in Western Australia’s history, took the Warriors to the top of the Shield table, pending the result of the match in Hobart between Tasmania and Queensland. It was also a wretchedly low moment in an unhappy season for the Blues.Nathan Hauritz and Shane Watson provided the only token resistance as the visitors were rounded up cheaply a second time, Michael Hogan and Nathan Coulter-Nile taking the early wickets of Phillip Hughes and Usman Khawaja before Beer worked his way through the rest to finish with seven.Watson’s 31 concluded a fair return to first-class cricket after a stubborn calf problem, but it was an unhappier time for Brad Haddin, who popped a return catch to Beer to complete a pair for the match.Lacking Marcus North due to a finger dislocation that required surgery, the Warriors went on to 5 for 560 before declaring, after Davis took his chance to pass 300. On 299 he swung the ball to fine leg, where Timm Van der Gugten dropped the catch and allowed the ball to reach the boundary. Davis’ stand with Adam Voges reached 379 before Voges was out to Nathan Hauritz. The partnership was Western Australia’s third largest of all time.