Daijiworld Media Network

Abu Dhabi, Aug 31 : Hello and welcome to the 2nd ODI between Pakistan and Australia. Clarke's men came out on top in the previous encounter, however, both sides struggle to score runs and had a few batting failures. Pakistan in particular will be looking to make some major inprovements in their batting department as this game is a do or die affair for them. Australia will want to keep the momentum going, however, they too would want to improve the top and middle order batting. In the last game none of Pakistan's pace bowlers were able to pick up any wickets and it will be interesting to see how they perform today.

Shahid Afridi is in not playing today. He has suffered a back injury

Interesting stat: Pakistan have not won a bilateral series against Australia since 2002.

Australia have won the toss and elected to bat

Clarke: We will bat today. The wicket looks fantastic and we will look to post a good score. The wicket will be a bit slow, we are confident that we can defend a score over here. No changes in our team. We have worked out a bit of Ajmal through videos but we need to play him well.

Misbah: Nobody is really sure thanks to the dew. Unfortunately, Afidi is out with a back injury, Rehman replaces him. Junaid will play instead of Cheema. We are looking forward for the pacers to start well, our spinners have usually done well for us over the last couple of years.

Teams:

Australia (Playing XI): David Warner, Matthew Wade(w), Michael Clarke(c), Michael Hussey, David Hussey, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Daniel Christian, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc

Pakistan (Playing XI): Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Misbah-ul-Haq(c), Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal(w), Sohail Tanvir, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Junaid Khan

Match Preview :

Pakistan's batting looked extremely out of place in the first ODI against Australia and they will need to work on a few things ahead of the second match of the ODI series. In the first ODI against Australia, Pakistan performed in a certain manner which their fans have begun to expect from them. The top order failed, Asad Shafiq rescued them and the lower order crumbled. Later the spinners put up a good fight, but George Bailey and Michael Clarke were better on their day. These aren't new problems to the Asian side. But they will be comforted by the fact that except the aforementioned Aussies, the other batsmen put up a competition to match their dismal performance. Knowing that this is the 2nd of a three match ODI series and with Pakistan down 1-0, they will be coming hard at the Australians.

Pakistan

As mentioned before, except Asad Shafiq and the spinners, nothing went Pakistan's way. Mohammed Hafeez might be doing the job with the ball, but has been failing to perform to expectation in his primary job, that of an opener. Kamran Akmal's return to the national side was disastrous, to say the least, as he struggled to score and was out for just 4 after playing 14 balls. The team management should be worried as the middle and lower order, inclusive of Shahid Afridi, have failed to step on the accelerator in the batting powerplay. On the bowling front, Aizaz Cheema's expensive spell in the first ODI has led experts to ask the question: If Umar Gul is playing the Sri Lankan Premiere League, why wasn't he picked for this 3 ODI series? Negatives apart, there is no denying that the spin trio of Saeed Ajma, Afridi and Hafeez is capable of defending really low scores and they will surely be the trump card for the skipper Misbah-ul-Haq

Australia

The biggest plus point for the visitors was the cool and composed knock played by the man who will lead the T20 side in the World Cup, George Bailey. After the departure of skipper Clarke, Bailey shepherded the chase and took the side to a win against a competent spin attack. Youngster Glen Maxwell displayed courage and application in the 63 run stand with Bailey and bowled a few overs of off-spin as well. The seamers Pattinson and Starc were in fine form, accounting for 8 wickets and pace will be Clarke's go-to option in the second ODI as well. They will try to finish off the series in this game and experiment with a few new faces in the third ODI.

Quotable Quotes

'Anybody who gets the ball to spin both ways is a difficult proposition. He (Ajmal) is difficult to pick up and we will have to analyze the footage' - Australian skipper Michael Clarke

'We are losing matches because we are not scoring runs in the lower order and that is why we had Shahid [Afridi] and Kamran.' - Pakistan skipper Misbah-Ul-Haq