Pakistan extra motivated to beat Australia, says Misbah-ul-Haq

Pakistan one-day skipper Misbah-ul-Haq has said that his teammates are extra motivated to register a series triumph against Australia – a thing they have not done for last 10 years.

Just before the T20 World Cup, the two teams are meeting in a three-match One Day International (ODI) series. After locking horns in three 50-over matches, the two sides will take on each other in as many T20 games. Pakistan have not won a series against
Australia since 2002, but Misbah is quite confident of putting a full spot to this misery.

"Of course, whenever there is such a thing it charges the team in an extra way, its needs an extra effort to combine and beat an opponent who we have not beaten for some time. Australia are one of the top teams, it’s difficult to beat them because they are
a fighting team in any conditions of the world," Misbah said on Monday.

"They have good players who put up the best fight and they are a difficult opponent. I don’t think we will only rely on spinners, we have to bat well and fast bowlers are very important for us because the ball reverse swings in Sharjah," he added.

The Kangaroos are coming off an emphatic win over Afghanistan. In the one-off ODI, the Aussie pacers took nine of 10 wickets, and they would be a huge threat to Pakistan. Misbah admitted that it is very important for his side to win this series, especially
after suffering a terrible 3-1 defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka.

"I think it’s important for both the teams also for Australia. For us it is very important because after this is the World T20, we couldn’t give the kind of performance that we wanted in the last two series, so it’s a good chance for us to stage a comeback,"
the skipper uttered.

The opening encounter is scheduled to be played at Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium on Tuesday, followed by the second game at Abu Dhabi at the end of this month. The two sides will return to Sharjah for the third and final clash on Monday, September
3^rd.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=31591

Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Aug 28 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry