Match Preview

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Australia eyeing series win

Australia go into the fourth ODI at Auckland with a 2-1 advantage and will look for a win to take an unbeatable lead in the 5-ODI series.

Australia were on top of their game on Tuesday at Hamilton and got the better of a New Zealand side that was struggling with a long injury list. Ryan Harris and Mitchell Johnson were excellent on the day and helped in restricting the Kiwis to a nominal total. They picked up three wickets each and left the hosts with no chance of coming back into the game. Their run chase was led by a brilliant century from Brad Haddin, who had struggled to get a big score so far despite getting off to some solid starts. The Aussies will welcome back Michael Clarke, who had missed the previous game to personal reasons. If Australia put in a similar performance at Auckland on Thursday, its difficult to see New Zealand getting the better of them.

New Zealand had a lot of selection issues with a number of their key players missing due to injury. But there is promising news ahead of Thursday’s encounter. Ross Taylor looked fine through his innings in the second ODI while James Franklin and Daryl Tuffey are hoping for a speedy recovery. A fully fit New Zealand squad can pose a serious challenge for the visiting side but they have failed to field a first choice team in the series so far. Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor continue to be the key players for New Zealand at the top of the order. Scott Styris and Gareth Hopkins have also looked convincing in the lower middle-order. Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond will be their biggest weapons in the bowling department.

West Indies look to build on win

With the series tied at one game apiece, the West Indian side will take on Zimbabwe in the third ODI of the series at Kingston on Wednesday.

The hosts were rather stunned by the Zimbabwean spinning assault in the first couple of games on tour including a T20I, but came back into the series with a narrow win in the second ODI. Despite going into the game as favourites, the West Indian side will understand that they have a task on their hands and that their batsmen need to figure out a way of handling the Zimbabwe spinners. The slower bowlers have done most of the damage so far in the series and the hosts will be looking to change that. West Indies have decided to leave out Darren Fletcher and Dwayne Smith from the side, while Dwayne Bravo will finally make a return to the squad after an injury had kept him out of the Aussie tour. Denesh Ramdin should return to the playing eleven and Darren bravo could come into the eleven as an opener. The West Indies will be hoping for a more convincing performance and a more dominating victory over the minnows.

Zimbabwe’s batting fell away in the second ODI, and that was one of the reasons behind their loss. Things could be very different at Kingstown though, which is known to be a batting friendly wicket and the side batting first will be looking to get a big total on the board. Tatenda Taibu has looked in great touch yet again and will be expected to do a chunk of the scoring but Hamilton Masakadza, who had been on a great run of form building up to the series will be hoping that he can get some runs under his belt at the top of the order. The spinners have been the key to Zimbabwe’s success and they will be hoping to continue and trouble the West Indies batting order early in the game. The returning West Indies players will make them slight favourites ahead of this tie.