Pakistan cricket team will take on Australia in the final of the two-match Test series on 21st November 2010. This match will be held at Leeds. This match is scheduled to begin at 09:30 GMT and 10:30 local time. Pakistan will try hard to win the match as they are trailing the series 0-1 after losing the first match by 150 runs in Lord’s. On the other hand,Australia will try to whitewash Pakistan winning the last match too.
Pakistan has crucial test history against Australia. Since 1999 Pakistan could not manage to get any victory againstAustralia. Their last victory against the same opponent was in November 1995 at Sydney. The interesting this is that since 1995 Pakistan cricket was led by 12 captains and soon it will be 13. On the other hand, Australia was captained by four captains where Ricky Ponting is still doing his job as captain.
Australia defeated Pakistan in all 12 test matches. If they can manage one more victory then it will be 14 tests victoryin a row. No doubt, this victory will add salt to their woe.
It is going to be a tough challenge for new Pakistan captain, Salman Butt, who was handed over the captaincy for the remaining test match against Australia. Shahid Afridi, who was given captaincy for the two-month long tour, has resigned from captaincy at the midst of the series afterPakistan suffered a humiliating defeat at the hand ofAustralia. He has already announced that the test match against Pakistan at Leeds will be his final test match.
Salman Butt is the most important batsman of Pakistancricket team. He scored 63 and 92 in two innings of the first test match and awarded player of the match jointly along with Australian player Simon Katich. Butt has good performance against Australia averaging 47.14 against them in Tests compared to an overall career mark of 32.75.
Bowling all rounder Steven Smith and wicketkeeper Tim Paine made their Test debut at Lord’s and performed well. It will be expected that these two players will keep important role behind Australia’s series victory.
The injuries of Ben Hilfenhaus and Marcus North have put the Australian cricket team under problem. Australian cricket team may select team without naming their names. Ben Hilfenhaus hurt his shoulder during the fielding in the first test match. On the other hand, Marcus North couldn’t take part in the training on Monday due to his illness.
The news of Ben Hilfenhaus’ improvement from injury has given boost to the Australian cricket team.
Let’s see if Salman Butt can lead the new-look Pakistancricket team successfully against Australia. It will be interesting to see if Shahid Afridi makes a memorable farewell.
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