Daijiworld Media Network

Sharjah, Sep 3: Hello, and a warm welcome to the 3rd and the final ODI between Pakistan and Australia. The two teams are back to Sharjah after a brief stopover at Abu Dhabi for the 2nd match. The series is nicely poised at 1-1, Pakistan will aim for their first series victory over Australia since 2002. Conditions are expected to be energy sapping for both teams and going with the trend where the teams chasing have won the first two matches, the capatin winning the toss might well choose to bowl first.

Australia have won the toss and elected to field

Misbah: I wanted to bowl first. We will never know about the dew factor, we have got 4 main spinners and some part-timers. We will stick to spin diet which is our strength. We want to prove that we are good enough to beat a top team like Australia.

Clarke: We will have a bowl. They are playing 4 main spinners, we would like to chase later in the night. We will play our natural game. We are unchanged from the previous match.

Australia (Playing XI): Matthew Wade(w), David Warner, Michael Clarke(c), Michael Hussey, David Hussey, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Daniel Christian, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc

Pakistan (Playing XI): Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Misbah-ul-Haq(c), Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal(w), Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Junaid Khan

Series in Pak Favour : Wasim Akram

Karachi: Pakistan's former captain Wasim Akram feels the Australians have been left flummoxed by spinner Saeed Ajmal and this would tilt the balance in Pakistan's favour in the ongoing one-day series in the United Arab Emirates.

Australia won the first ODI in Sharjah but were humbled in the second ODI at Abu Dhabi in searing conditions with heavy dew also making life difficult for the bowlers on Friday night.

But Akram felt that the biggest advantage for Pakistan was that the Australians had no clue on how to play Ajmal. "They can't pick his off-break from his doosra and that shows the quality of the bowler," he said.

He said this was the reason Ajmal had already picked up seven wickets in just two matches without conceding too many runs.

Ajmal, who has been the top wicket-taker in Tests for the calendar period starting from July 2011 to August, 2012, was included in the ICC's Test team of the year but was not nominated for any other category of the annual awards.
His omission came as a surprise to many as he also finished at number two in the list of leading wicket-takers in ODIs for the same period assessed by the ICC while picking their final nominations.

But Ajmal said while he was disappointed at not being nominated in the final categories he was not dejected and happy to be the only Pakistani in the ICC Test team. "I was happy when they selected me for the awards. But if I got removed it's no issue. I will improve my performance with hard work to win the award next year," he said.