ADELAIDE: Australia enter Friday’s quarter-final at the Adelaide Oval as runaway favourites but will be wary of a mercurial Pakistan side looking to deny the co-hosts a place in the last four.

Pakistan are aiming to replicate the success of the Imran Khan-led side which won the 1992 edition Down Under while four-time champions Australia are seeking to win a first title at home having won the tournament on every other continent on the cricket map.

History is with the Aussies, though. Pakistan have lost nine of their last 10 One-day Internationals to Australia on Australian grounds, including the last seven in a row.

We will treat this like World Cup final: Clarke

“They are favourites,” Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq, whose side goes into the game on a four-game winning run, said in a news conference on Thursday.

“But there are no hard and fast rules that favourites are always going to win the game. It’s on the day ... we are hopeful and we are very positive and I think we have got a bowling line-up that can really go through any team.”

Pakistan’s bowling line-up will be without towering fast bowler Mohammad Irfan after the left-armer was ruled out of the rest of the tournament on Tuesday with a stress fracture in the hip.

Irfan, at seven-feet one inch the tallest man to play international cricket, took eight wickets in five matches.

But Misbah’s confidence comes from the fact that the other pacers he has — Wahab Riaz (14), Sohail Khan (11) and Rahat Ali (7) — have combined to claim 32 wickets, only two less than Australia’s pace quartet of Mitchell Starc (16), Mitchell Johnson (9), James Faulkner (4) and Pat Cummins (5).

“Obviously, everybody knows that Irfan is a different kind of bowler, and that’s a big loss for the team,” Misbah said.

“But you have to just handle these things — we’ve got other bowlers who are good enough and they are also performing really well, they are up to the mark. We’ve still got that sort of team, that sort of talent, that sort of bowling line-up that could really put Australia under pressure.”

The bowlers were key in reviving Pakistan’s campaign after they opened the tournament with back-to-back losses against India and the West Indies before subsequent victories against Zimbabwe, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Ireland saw them through to the knockouts.

The current campaign bears uncanny similarities to the 1992 campaign when Pakistan made a horror start before embarking on a rip-roaring run which saw them beat England in the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

“Australia always play aggressive cricket,” Misbah added. “And if you want to really go out there against them you also need good aggressive cricket ... you have still got a chance. It’s not like that if you go with a defensive approach against Australia.”

And Australian captain Michael Clarke said his side was wary of Pakistan.

“I think Pakistan have been underrated for a long time, especially in the shorter form of the game,” Clarke said during a news conference on Thursday.

“I think they’ve got a lot of talent, and are well led. Pakistan have some really good quick bowlers in their attack, and they’ve shown that throughout the World Cup.

“I think fast bowling will play a big part tomorrow, especially if I leave that grass on the wicket like there is now, fingers crossed.”

Clarke and national selector Rod Marsh were seen in lengthy consultation with the Adelaide Oval groundsman Damian Hough on the eve of the game with the Australian skipper expressing he hopes no more grass is shaved off ahead of Friday’s contest.

The two teams have met each other eight times at a World Cup with both winning four apiece. Pakistan, however, won the last meeting in the 2011 edition in Colombo.

That defeat in a pool match ended the then three-time defending champions’ 34-match winning streak at World Cups dating back to 1999.

It was also Pakistan who were the last team to beat Australia before their winning streak which included the teams playing off in the 1999 World Cup final and Australia go on to defend the trophy twice.

Losing to Pakistan in Adelaide would be more or less the equivalent result to 1992, when they missed the semi-finals due largely to a defeat at the hands of Imran’s men in Perth.

“We’ll treat this like a World Cup final for us,” Clarke added. “It’s a crucial game. Obviously, you lose, and you’re sitting and watching the rest of the tournament, so we’re focused on just making sure we can have success in this game.”

Teams (from):

AUSTRALIA: David Warner, Aaron Finch, Shane Watson, Steven Smith, Michael Clarke (captain), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Brad Haddin, James Faulkner, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, George Bailey, Xavier Doherty.

PAKISTAN: Ahmed Shehzad, Sarfraz Ahmed, Haris Sohail, Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Umar Akmal, Sohaib Maqsood, Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali, Ehsan Adil, Younis Khan, Yasir Shah, Nasir Jamshed.

Umpires: Marais Erasmus (South Africa) and Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka).

TV umpire: Richard Illingworth (England).

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2015

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