After Australia clinched the series in the 4th ODI, the 5th ODI between the two teams has become something like a formality. Earlier today, in the 4th One Day match, Australia easily outplayed Pakistan and won the match convincingly y 8 wickets with 5.4 overs remianing. Many people of Pakistani origin came at Abu Dhabi came to the stadium to watch the match as the day was Friday, weekend in Abu Dhabi. They again felt disappointed with the performance of their national team. I wonder how many of them will bother to come on Sunday to watch the 5th One Day match.
Pakistan vs Australia 5th ODI 2009 is going to take place on 3 May (Sunday) at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. The starting time is Local 14:30 and GMT 10:30. It is now very hot in UAE and I am sure that whoever will win the toss will want to bat first. In this weather, fielding is very difficult for any team. Today, from this idea, Pakistan decided to bat first but they could not do anything. In fact, what amazed me was that in this series, it is Shahid Afridi who is famous for being inconsistent all his life has become the most consistent player for Pakistan. Well, the bad news is that today, he became some injured and it is not clear yet whether he will play in the 5th match or not. If he cannot play then it will be a big blow for Pakistani team.
The Australian players are in happy mood now. They have suffered some embarrassing defeats in the last few months against some other countries. So, it is something like returning to their form. They are the world champion and they want to show the world that they are best.
What disappointed the Pakistani fans most today is that they failed both in batting and bowling. In this series, their batsmen could not bat the full 50 overs in any of the four matches so far. It shows that long absence from international cricket has rusted their batsmen. However, today, their bowlers played equally bad too. In fact, at one stage, I felt that they were competing who can be worse.
For both of the two teams, there is some worrying news. I have already mentioned that Afridi got some injured. Michael Clarke of Australia looked some injured too. He looked weak towards the end of the innings. He scored a century today and it is perhaps the only century of the series so far.
Now, let us talk about live score. Well, many websites provides live score and some of them are:
Cricinfo
Sify sports
action8cricket
Cricket365
Thatscricket
cricketnext
Headlinesindia.com
CRICBUZZ
123INDIA.COM
As I mentioned, the match is now a mere formality. It will just decide whether Australia will win the series by 4-1 or 3-2. Well, it shows that Pakistan has to be involved more with international cricket. Most countries are not inclined to visit the country because of safety concerns. So, an alternative venue in UAE, Canada or Scotland seems to be the next best thing for them at least for the time being.
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