After a thrilling first game of the series, Australia and Pakistan face off in the city of churches for game two. Australia will be looking to wrap up the series with a win, in what’s set to be another intriguing clash. Jack Tobin has you covered with his full game preview, best bet, and prop bet below!
Australia vs Pakistan: 2nd ODI Preview & Betting Tips
Adelaide Oval, Friday 8th November, 2:30pm AEDT
Australia
Squad: Pat Cummins, Sean Abbott, Cooper Connolly, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
There was plenty to like for Australia, however it was far from their best performance as they scraped over the line in a two wicket win at the MCG. After sending the visitors in, Australia were brilliant for the first 40 overs as they restricted Pakistan to 7/148, led by Mitchell Starc’s 3/33. Despite the quality bowling for large portions of the innings, Pakistan’s tail wagged with Naseem Shah (40 off 39) and Shaheen Afridi (24 off 19) helped Pakistan get to 203.
Australia were in complete control at 2/113 thanks to Josh Inglis (49 off 42) and Steve Smith (44 off 46), but Australia suffered a dramatic collapse of 5/42 to slump to 7/155. Inside of that 5 wicket collapse was a period where Pakistan took 3/0, as Haris Rauf sparked Pakistan into a strong position. The collapse was brought about by ordinary dismissals, however captain Pat Cummins produced another brilliant knock of 32* off 31 to see his side over the line.
A point of interest coming into this game will be around Jake Fraser-McGurk, who struggled to 16 off 14 before being dismissed in a remarkably predictable manner. Although he is clearly a talented player who will have a bright future, he’s missed a big opportunity to cement his spot at the top of the order ahead of the Champions Trophy. Fraser McGurk has scored 0, 16, 0, 50, and 16 in his last five white ball games for Australia.
Pakistan
Squad: Mohammad Rizwan, Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Agha Salman, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Irfan Khan, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi
The highs and lows that fans have been accustomed to with Pakistan cricket were well on display at the MCG on Monday. A poor innings with the bat was salvaged by some lower order fireworks, while a poor start with the ball was rescued by Haris Rauf to put Pakistan in the box seat with Australia requiring 49 runs with only three wickets in hand.
However, Pakistan’s execution against Australia’s lower order was poor, with the short ball approach conceding an abundance of wides that helped Australia get to victory. Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf both bowled 5 wides each, while Mohammad Hasnain bowled 2. Although Rauf and Hasnan picked up crucial wickets they both were expensive, going at economy rates over 7 runs per over.
A positive for Pakistan was that their best two batsmen in Babar Azam (37 off 44) and Muhammad Rizwan (44 of 71) got starts in game one. Babar looked in brilliant touch until his dismissal, while Rizwan recovered from a slow start to make a handy contribution. Pakistan need their two stars to be at their best if they are a chance to beat Australia, particularly given the struggles that Abdullah Shafique and Saim Ayub have had at the top of the order. In 13 international matches opening the batting together, Shafique and Ayub average an opening partnership of 7.6, only getting to double figures on 3 occasions, and failing to score on 4 occasions.
Match Prediction
Australia will likely pick a full-strength side given that Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood will leave the ODI squad after Friday’s game to prepare for the Test series. Game one should serve as a wakeup call of what can happen if Australia are slightly off, so expect a ruthless performance from the world champions in game two.
Australia have won six of their last seven ODI’s at Adelaide Oval, which includes two wins over Pakistan. If Australia plays with the sharpness that they did for the first 40 overs with the ball and the first 15 overs with the bat, they won’t have any issues sealing a series win with one game to play.
Australia
$1.22 (3 Units)
Prop Bet
Josh Inglis is in the form of his life in 2024, and has been rewarded with the captaincy for game three of this series, as well as the T20 series. Inglis has smashed centuries in both of his Sheffield Shield matches to start this summer, along with a T20I century against Scotland in September, which was followed by scores of 37 and 42 against England.
In ODI cricket in 2024, Inglis has scored 194 runs at an average of 48.50, with a strike rate of 131.97. He’s scoring plenty of runs, and scoring them at an incredible rate. Inglis is in red hot form at the moment, and will continue that on Friday.
Josh Inglis Australian Top Run Scorer
$6.00
