2019 Cricket World Cup – Wednesday, June 12th at 10:30 am
Hopefully, we will get to see some cricket being played after three matches have been wiped out by the rain, including the last two. This should be a cracker as well. You have Australia stepping out fresh on the back of a defeat against India, taking on Pakistan who still have to be full of renewed belief and confidence having beaten hosts England.
Australia v Pakistan Winner Odds*
Australia 4/9
Pakistan 7/4
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on June 11th, 2019 at 00:57 am)
Can Australia fight back to beat Pakistan?
Australia took their first knock of the 2019 World Cup. Their undefeated start was snapped when they faced up to the might of India. They suffered a defeat by 36 runs at the Oval to leave them with a W2 D1 record. There does look enough about them, of course, to be making the top four at the end of the round robin and reach the semi-finals. Their bowling assets of Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Mitchell Starc can carry them and they have batting threats at the top of the order to pull decent scores together.
David Warner and Steve Smith still look to be the most capable of the batting order for the Aussies and they are holding them together. Australia are still looking for a couple of special performances from their batting line up though. David Warner had a painstaking 50 in their match against India, which was just about as dull as it could have been. He may be keen to cut loose a bit and is 3/1 to be their top batsman* (betting odds taken from bet365 on June 11th, 2019 at 00:57 am).
Australia v Pakistan Head to Head
Australia and Pakistan have already squared off in ODI action this year. Back in March, they had a five-match series and it was a clean sweep produced by Australia. There were some big wins in that series for the Aussies as well, a couple of 8-wicket success and an 80-run triumph.
Those results moved Australia on to an eight-match winning streak in ODI action against Pakistan. In the last five years, the two nations have met in 14 ODI fixtures and the Australians have won 13 of them.
Can Pakistan earn another big World Cup win?
Pakistan had their third game of the tournament washed out against Sri Lanka. That leaves them on the three points from their three fixtures so far. They probably would have been targeting that match in Bristol though for a big two points after having beaten England. It has been a really up and down tournament from them so far. From crashing in their opening game against the West Indies to the high of beating tournament favourites England.
It all came together for them in that game against England, but the big question about them is consistency. Do they have it or not? If they play the way that they did against England then they could give the Australians a run for their money. The other thing about that win over England was that it came after having just lost a series 4-0 against the English. Pakistan had that miserable time against Australia earlier this year. Can they do the same to them which they did against England?
Predictions
Australia will be desperate to get back to winning ways after the loss against India. They can’t afford to have a losing rot suddenly set back in. This will be a big test of their mental approach now. Pakistan are just an unpredictable threat, but Australia should just have the all-around edge over them. Australia to win.
