Sydney: Australia play Pakistan in the last eight of the World Cup in Adelaide on Friday, with home captain Michael Clarke saying his side will treat the match as a final.
Apart from a nailbiting one-wicket loss to fellow tournament co-hosts New Zealand and a washed-out match with Bangladesh, four-times champions Australia have made serene progress in their quest to win a first World Cup title on home soil.
Pakistan, by contrast, suffered thumping defeats by defending champions India and the West Indies in their first two pool matches.
However, Misbah-ul-Haq’s men have since won four successive matches — including a victory over a South Africa side who on Wednesday stormed into the semi-finals with a nine-wicket thrashing of Sri Lanka — to reinforce their reputation as a team who can be a match for anyone at their best.
Pakistan have lost nine of their last 10 one-day internationals to Australia on Australian grounds, including all of the last seven.
But Clarke said: “I think Pakistan have been under-rated for a long time especially in the shorter form of the game. Their attack is very good and they have got a good mix of youth and experience.
“I believe we have to be at our best to beat them. We’ll treat this like a World Cup final.”
For Australia, the only selection dilemma appears to be whether Josh Hazlewood will replace fellow fast bowler Pat Cummins in a pace attack spearheaded by in-form left-armer Mitchell Starc.
Pakistan suffered a setback on Tuesday when giant fast bowler Mohammad Irfan was ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a stress fracture of the hip, but the likes of Wahab Riaz and Rahat Ali have been in fine form with the ball.
“They (Australia) are favourites but there is no hard-and-fast rule that favourites are always going to win the match,” said Misbah.
“I think we’ve got a bowling line-up which can go through any (batting) line-up.”
If they can defeat Australia, 1992 champions Pakistan will face India — a side they’ve never beaten at the World Cup — in a semi-final in Sydney on March 26 after their arch-rivals downed Bangladesh by a whopping 109 runs in Melbourne on Thursday.
New Zealand and the West Indies, who meet in Wellington on Saturday, know the winners of their quarter-final will play South Africa in Auckland on March 24.
But Grant Elliott, New Zealand’s South Africa-born all-rounder, said the Black Caps were focused on the task at hand.
“We’ll concentrate on this game and if we do get to the semi-final, then we’ll have a look at their team.”
New Zealand, who won all six of their pool matches, will be firm favourites to triumph this weekend against a West Indies side who lost three of their group games.
But West Indies all-rounder Darren Sammy said his side were like underdog Buster Douglas, who in 1990 caused one of the biggest boxing upsets by defeating previously unbeaten world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
“I remember some guy called Douglas beating Mike Tyson and it’s a case of that on Saturday,” said Sammy.
“There’ll be a full house rooting for New Zealand but we know that once we do the basics, the things we know we can do well, we’re unstoppable.” (AFP)
