Pakistan

Group Stage: 1st

Not again... is this the most annoying wicket takin celebration ever? Yes, it is.

Stars Thus Far: Umar Gul has been Pakistan’s ‘rock’ in their very strong bowling attack. He is the Hussey of the bowling attack and has been troubling all sides including Australia in the final Group A clash in Colombo with figures of 3 for 30 helping bowl the Aussies out for 176. He has pace, bounce, swings it with the new ball and reverse swing it quite easily, one tough customer, arguably the best fast bowler in the tournament so far.

One man that has slipped under the radar has been Asad Shafiq who has played the last two games for Pakistan and in both scoring 78 and 46. He comes in at 3 and at crucial times, he has proven to be calm under pressure and this is like gold for Pakistan whose batting tends to panic in the middle order. Don’t forget about Afridi. He is the leading wicket taker in the world cup with 17 wickets and does not have many runs. That’s Boom Boom for you.

Strengths: The bowling is definitely the more reliable strength these days for the Pakistanis. The reason for this is the variety they have; there is an off-spinner, left arm orthodox, a leg spinner, a right arm paceman and a left arm paceman. They have been blessed with his rare variety and also with the magnificent form of their main men who are Shahid Afridi (the leading wicket taker in the competition) and Umar Gul, the in-form paceman of the tournament. to express the strength of their bowling, the overall average run rate against them in this tournament so far is only 4.21 runs per over.

Weaknesses: With the bowling being a massive strength, it is easy to say that the batting is the weakness but this may not always be true in Pakistan’s case. They have a formidable batting line up with world class players including, Younis Khan and Misbah Ul Haq. However whenever Pakistan seem to lose it is with their batting just being a bit shaky. The main problem so far has been the opening partnership, there has not been a half century stand yet, it had become so much of an issue the opener Shehzad was dropped.

Key Player For This Game: The most important player for the green and whites in this game has to be Umar Gul. He is in magical form and is opening the bowling which means that he will be bowling to Chris Gayle, who is a crucial wicket; you need to get Gayle early to shatter the Windies’ hopes early on.

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VS

West Indies

Group Stage: 4th

Team effort... WI will need exactly that to have any chance against Pakistan.

Stars Thus Far: When looking back to all the West Indies matches, the bowling of Kemar Roach always comes in mind. He has been quite devastating at times with his immense pace and swing, and these features have led to performances such as a six-for against the Dutch and absolutely ripped through Bangladesh helping bowl them out for a mere 58 runs.

Although this man has not been very consistent, Darren Bravo still impressed the world in one innings against the tough Proteas where he scored a fluent 73. He was mistaken for the great Lara a few times by the commentators because of his appearance and most of all the elegance of his batting style with the high back lift; a trademark of Brian Lara. Every time Bravo comes out to bat there is a high expectation of him to produce something of which Lara was able to produce.

Strengths: Many before the tournament said that West Indies’ strength would be the batting, if it ‘clicked’. But the bowling depth has definitely improved with paceman such as Roach, and the introduction of Andre Russell and Ravi Rampaul. They also have capable spinners including the experienced Benn and the young Bishoo. Their bowling line up has aggressiveness and guys that can choke the run rate of oppositions, and this is evident in the previous matches they played where India was not allowed to get away and ended with 268 and England were only able to scrap to 243.

Weaknesses: Worries for the Windies in the tournament has been the batting. The Gayle factor plays too much of a role in their game plan, therefore if Gayle doesn’t fire the batting will not fire. although this is denied by the captain Sammy, it gives the edge of confidence to the opposition when Gayle is dismissed. The problem of batting has exposed their chasing abilities as well, against England and India they were cruising to what seemed successful run chases but both times they crumbled under the pressure.

Key Player For This Game: Other then the ever dangerous Gayle, the one that could announce himself on the world stage from the Caribbean could be the new, explosive all-rounder Andre Russell. His bowling has been very impressive showing good pace and energy and his batting is similar where he likes to attack and score quickly with a flurry of boundaries. He looks the goods.

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Prediction

This game is not easy to predict because both teams are unpredictable, but one would have to go with Pakistan who are coming off a great victory over Australia and finished 1st in Group A so there confidence will be high. Their bowling is very strong and that could upset the brittle West Indian batting line up.

Assuming West Indies bat first the prediction is Pakistan will prevail by 5 wickets. There is no confidence behind this prediction though!

Manchester Untied have continued their great festive form with a 2-1 victory at West Brom. Goals from Wayne Rooney, his first in open play for some nine months, and Javier Hernandez cancelled out a fine James Morrison effort. However, throw in a missed Odemwingie penalty and it was a lot closer than perceived. The win sees United stay top of the league with a game in hand over Arsenal and Manchester City.

Over at the Eastlands, the Citizens beat Blackpool 1-0. Missing Mario Balotelli, Carlos Tevez was the main man up front. But in what was a close game, the Argentinean struggled, missing a penalty and several guilt edge chances to put to finish the game as a contest. It was Andy Johnson’s shot from 20 yards that won it, his shot seemingly going unnoticed through the entire goal box and into the back of the net.

The Gunners meanwhile travelled to Birmingham City for a potentially tricky match. However, the Gunners turned on their style and became only the second team to win in 30 games at St. Andrew’s. After Robin Van Persie and the impressive Samir Nasri gave Arsenal a two-goal advantage, a Johnson own goal after some fantastic lead up work by Nasri and Fabregas sealed a much needed and deserved three points.

At Anfield, Liverpool finally had something to cheer about, defeating Bolton 2-1. However, things could have been a lot worse if not for Joe Cole’s injury time equaliser. Steve Gerrard was brilliant coming off the bench in the first half, with Fernando Torres breaking his six-match goal drought. The Reds getting the three points they so desperately needed in their continuing battle for European football.

Tottenham continued their battle for a Champions League spot with a tight 1-0 win over Fulham. Gareth Bale kept up his fantastic season, scoring the only goal with a looping header to have Mark Schwarzer stranded in goal.

Stoke welcomed Everton to the Britannia Stadium, with a Kenwyne Jones effort and a Jagielka own goal meaning Stoke took all three whilst leaving a struggling Everton just three points off the relegation zone.

In the other games, West Ham picked up a valuable 2-0 win over fellow relegation favourites Wolverhampton at Upton Park, whilst Sunderland were convincing 3-0 winners over Blackburn at the Stadium of Light.

Tomorrow, Chelsea take on Aston Villa whilst Newcastle visit Wigan.

The explosive Jamaican is predicting a Windies rout.

After Australia won the test series many thought they would, one might forgiven for thinking they did it easily and without competition, especially after the first Test. But the Windies battled back and with a bit of luck might have won a test or two.

Now they have come back with their ODI squad to resume the final battle against the Aussies. But can they deliver?

They’re missing talismanic players in Dwayne Bravo, Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan. But they’ve got arguably the biggest hitter the game has ever seen, and certainly their most important player in captain, Chris Gayle.

The way he single-handedly destroyed the PMXI days ago was a testament to ‘Mr. Cool’ as he is now famously dubbed. But words don’t lie.

Proving he is under absolutely no pressure coming into this series, the Jamaican provided a bold statement to the media when asked if he was intimidated by Australia.

“It’s not (intimidating), to be honest with you,”

“We’re going to beat them 4-1, so not to worry.”

How can you not like this man?

There’s no doubt that if he fires the rest of his side will as well, so bring it on I say!

Having not lost a game all summer, Australia should be confident. Yet, we saw just what under-estimating your opponents can do in the Twenty20 International against Pakistan. The visitors were down on confidence, had their heads down and were out of luck. But they were also and still are T20 champions of the world.

They were unlucky to lose in the end, but the Australians got a warning, so there is no reason as to why they should expect another easy series here.

There will be a few players looking to push on and establish themselves in this series, especially on the bowling front. Guys like Ryan Harris and Clint McKay were impressive against Pakistan, but can they keep their positions?

Talking about bowlers, young Kemar Roach is back and will be again looking to torment Ricky Ponting like he did in the test series, so there will be a keen eye out on his performance.

The other player that seems to have slipped under the radar for the Windies is the explosive Kieron Pollard. Sure, he is inexperienced, but he can definitely hit the ball, and far at that.

All said it should be a highly entertaining series. The two sides had plenty to say to each other during the tests, so hopefully we get a bit more today!

Finally, sorry Chris, I’m going for a 3-2 series win for Australia! I hope you prove me wrong!

The first ODI begins at 2.25pm AEDT at the MCG.