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For decades, Adelaide had a tradition of cricket matches on Christmas Day, including a Test in 1967 that many of the participants appear to have no memory of

Brydon Coverdale24-Jan-2017For most Australians, cricket on Christmas Day probably means a backyard game with the family, or maybe a spot of beach cricket. But there may come a time – perhaps sooner than you think – when a BBL match is scheduled for Christmas night. There have been post-Christmas rumblings in the past couple of years, and not just those caused by too many serves of plum pudding.”I think there is a growing sentiment that it is a possibility,” Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland said on ABC radio during the Boxing Day Test last month. “We need to think about the right venue for it and we also need to consult widely. We understand it’s not just a narrow-minded cricket decision […] But I think it is an opportunity and it would be a good thing for the game.”It would be easy to believe such a concept imitates the sporting landscape in the United States, where Christmas Day games have become a tradition in the NBA: five matches were played on December 25 last year. NFL games have also occasionally been played on Christmas Day.In fact, elite cricket in Australia has a history of Christmas Day play going much, much further back.In 1926, South Australia hosted Queensland in a Sheffield Shield match that started on Christmas Day, and thus began a tradition that continued until 1969. In most years during that time, the two teams met in a Shield fixture at Adelaide Oval that included play on Christmas Day – typically, Christmas was only a rest day if it happened to fall on a Sunday.

“I’ve got no memory of [playing in the 1967 Adelaide Test] whatsoever, and I’m normally good at these sorts of things! I probably failed, did I?”Bob Simpson, who was Australia’s captain in the match, and scored 55 and 103

Occasionally the South Australians instead played the touring England side, and in those cases Christmas was made a rest day. But such was Adelaide Oval’s affinity with Christmas Day cricket that twice the ground hosted Test matches that featured play on December 25. In 1951, West Indies wrapped up victory on Christmas Day over an Australia side captained by Arthur Morris.And in 1967, Australia hosted India in a Test that started at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, December 23. Christmas Eve was a Sunday, so it was the rest day. But by Christmas morning – a Monday – the players were again out on the field representing their country. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this unusual occurrence is that hardly any of the Australians involved recall playing a home Test on Christmas Day.Ian Chappell: “We didn’t play on Christmas Day… did we?”Bill Lawry: “I don’t recall it.”Alan Connolly: “I can’t remember anything about it […] It would be against my thoughts to play cricket on Christmas Day, that’s for sure.”David Renneberg: “I didn’t think it was Christmas Day that we played, I thought it was Boxing Day. I wouldn’t play on Christmas Day if I could help it. I think there’s enough of it. I think a bit of family time on Christmas Day would be fine.”Even the captain, Bob Simpson, was rendered almost speechless to be told that he had played an Adelaide Test on Christmas Day. “That’s amazing!” he said. “What year did you say? Let me write that down…”And then: “I’ve got no memory of it whatsoever, and I’m normally good at these sorts of things! I probably failed, did I?” Yes, Simmo, quite the failure: 55 in the first innings and 103 in the second.”That’s amazing!” Bob Simpson was incredulous when told that his Australian team played on Christmas Day in the 1967 Adelaide Test•PA PhotosSuch were the protests from these players, the men who actually spent their Christmas Day in the field for Australia, that doubts began to creep in. Could the scorecard have been wrong? It lists the match as being played on December 23, 25, 26, 27 and 28, but could that be a typo?Not according to , which noted the unusual circumstance in a surprisingly casual manner: “Abid Ali cleaned up the Australia batting on Monday (Christmas Day)”.And journalist Rohan Rivett, in the following day’s , wrote acidly of Australia’s Christmas morning batting – Bob Cowper was “pathetic” despite making 92 – but complimented Farokh Engineer on his innings. “His 89 in 109 minutes while his colleagues gathered 38,” Rivett wrote, “was champagne attacking batting which deserved the roars of a packed MCG, not the warm but pathetically thin clapping of the Yuletide hundreds scattered around the Adelaide Oval.”So, the Christmas Day Test of 1967 did really happen. And despite the lack of recollection from several of the Australians, at least two members of the XI are aware of the oddity. Paul Sheahan had good reason to recall the game, for it was his Test debut.”I played my first Test over Christmas Day,” Sheahan said. “It was a slightly weird feeling when you’re used to having Christmas with your family, and all of a sudden you’re out on a cricket field. It’s very difficult to open the presents!”I’d have played on any day of the year […] I think we were probably delightfully secular in those days. I don’t remember there being any comment at all about having to play on Christmas Day. The only thing was that some were ruing the fact that they couldn’t necessarily be with their families on Christmas Day.”

“I can remember they’d give us a very thin slice of turkey and a roast potato or two, some pumpkin and peas and that was it… There wasn’t enough of it!Barry Jarman remembers Christmas Day Sheffield Shield meals

Sheahan didn’t bat on Christmas Day – he had made 81 on the first day of the Test and Australia lost their last four wickets for 24 on Christmas morning – but the bowlers had plenty of work to do as India reached 8 for 288 at stumps. Two of those wickets fell to Graham McKenzie, and though he doesn’t remember them, he does recall the fact of playing on Christmas Day.”I think in my career I played two Christmas Day Tests – one in Madras and one in Adelaide,” McKenzie said. “It was pretty unusual to play a Test match on that day. Up until lunchtime it was pretty quiet, and then quite a few people came after lunch and had a little rest up on the hill, after their Christmas lunch.”Despite Rivett’s reference to the “Yuletide hundreds”, crowds did generally turn up to Adelaide Oval on Christmas Day, though often in the afternoon. Approximately 6000 spectators watched on Christmas Day in 1951, as West Indies closed out their victory over Australia. The crowd figure in 1967 is unknown, but Adelaideans were accustomed to having cricket on Christmas.Barry Jarman was Australia’s wicketkeeper in the 1967 Christmas Test and though he has no memory of that particular match, he recalls spending several Christmases in the field for South Australia in their Sheffield Shield matches against Queensland.”They just said, ‘Turn up and play’, and we played,” Jarman said. “We did what we were told. There’d be hardly anyone there before lunch, and then after lunch a few straggled in, and then by afternoon tea there’d be a few thousand there.”Paul Sheahan, second from right, had good reason to remember the “Christmas Test” of 1967, for it was his debut. “I think we were probably delightfully secular in those days”•Fairfax Media via Getty ImagesJarman, as a local player, could at least have his family Christmas dinner in the evening, but not so the Queensland players, who would spend December 25, year after year, at Adelaide Oval. Ken “Slasher” Mackay, for example, played in 13 of the Christmas Shield games from 1946 to 1963, of which ten featured play on December 25.”Cook and Wallis were the caterers,” Jarman said. “I can remember they’d give us a very thin slice of turkey and a roast potato or two, some pumpkin and peas and that was it… There wasn’t enough of it!”So, there you have it. In 29 of the years from 1926 to 1969, Adelaide Oval hosted cricket on Christmas Day, and on the occasions when it didn’t, that was often because Christmas was a Sunday and thus cricket’s traditional rest day anyway. And in two of those years, the Christmas Day game was a Test match.Just five years after that 1967 Christmas Test, Australia hosted Pakistan in a Test at Adelaide Oval that started on December 22. Play continued through Christmas Eve (which was a Sunday) but Christmas Day was made a rest day.By then, the Christmas Day cricket tradition had died out, never to return – unless the BBL brings it back. “We need to think about the right venue for it,” Sutherland said of a Christmas night BBL game. Adelaide Oval, given the history, would seem the logical choice.

Stats highlights from the second day’s play in the Delhi Test between India and South Africa

Shiva Jayaraman04-Dec-20151913-14 The last and only other instance of South Africa being dismissed for sub-200 totals five times in a series. Back then England had been their tormentors. This time it is India. South Africa’s 121 in Delhi marks the fifth time in six innings that they have been bowled out for under 200.8.33 Faf du Plessis’s average in this series and his duck today was his third in four Tests. Du Plessis has made just 50 runs in six innings, and 39 of them had come in one innings. He recorded the third-worst average for a South African top-order batsman in a series having played six or more innings. It is also the third-worst average for an overseas top-order batsman in a series in India having played six or more innings.8 Five-wicket hauls by Ravindra Jadeja in first-class cricket in 2015-16. His 5 for 30 today took his tally to 60 wickets this season at an average of 11.43, which is the third-best for any bowler with at least 50 wickets in a season since 2005-06. Jadeja has taken 21 wickets in this four-Test series against South Africa at an average of 10.61.0 Individual hundreds in this series before Ajinkya Rahane’s 127. AB de Villiers’ 85, from the first innings in Bangalore, had been the previous highest score till now.47 Runs Rahane had made in six Test innings at home, before his hundred in this one. This was his second Test at Feroz Shah Kotla, where he had also made his Test debut in 2012-13. Back then, he had managed just eight from two innings. Rahane also passed his previous best in Tests against South Africa – 96 in Durban in 2013-14. Overall, Rahane has made 1519 runs in Tests at 42.19, with five hundreds and seven fifties.86 The previous best partnership of this series, put on by Cheteshwar Pujara and M Vijay in Mohali. Rahane and R Ashwin eclipsed that with the 98 runs they added for the eighth wicket. That means this series is still without a hundred partnership. This was also the third-highest stand for India’s eighth or lower wickets in Tests against South Africa.1996 The last time, before R Ashwin’s 56 in this game, that an India batsman coming out at No. 9 or lower made a fifty in Tests against South Africa. It had been one of India’s lead spinners back then too: Anil Kumble had struck 88 in Kolkata. Kiran More’s 55 in Durban Test in 1992-93 is the only other such fifty.1987 Prior to Kyle Abbot’s 5 for 30, the last time an overseas fast bowler took a five-wicket haul in Delhi was 28 years ago. West Indies’ Courtney Walsh had taken 5 for 54 in the second innings, Patrick Patterson had taken 5 for 24 in the first innings of that Test. Overall, Abbott’s effort was only the sixth instance of a visiting seamer taking a five-for at Feroz Shah Kotla. This was also the first five-wicket haul by any fast bowler in Delhi since Javagal Srinath took 5 for 60 against Zimbabwe in 2000-01.1.61 Abbott’s economy rate. He bowled 24.5 overs and conceded only 40 runs. The last time a fast bowler took a Test five-wicket haul in India at better economy was in 1997-98 – Michael Kasprowicz claimed 5 for 28, conceding only 1.55 runs per over. Overall, Abbott was sixth on the stingy fast bowlers to take five wickets in an innings in India. Abbott’s economy rate is also the fourth-best by any pacer under condition of bowling at least 20 overs in Feroz Shah Kotla.1 Five-for by Abbott in Tests before this one. He had taken 7 for 29 in Centurion – the second-best bowing figures by a South African on debut – against Pakistan in 2012-13. Abbott has taken 18 wickets at an average of 17.55 in five Tests. This was also the best returns by a fast bowler in this series, surpassing Morne Morkel’s 3 for 19 in Nagpur.195 Runs added by India after the fall of their sixth wicket – the fifth-best aggregate after losing their first six for fewer than 150 runs. The last time they put on more runs for their final four wickets was against New Zealand in Ahmedabad – 201 after being six down for 65 runs.50 Wickets for Umesh Yadav at an average of 38.04 in 17 Tests. He reached the mark by bowling JP Duminy with a peach of an outswinger. Umesh is the 14th India fast bowler to take at least 50 Test wickets.

It will take something remarkable for England to chase down their target and the more evidence that is displayed suggests more fresh faces need to brought into the team in place of mentally scarred seniors

George Dobell at Lord's20-Jul-20143:03

Chappell: Bell has a few things to sort out

Did James Anderson allow his damaged ego to get in the way?•Getty ImagesThe new era is only four Tests old, but already it is fighting for its life.To see Alastair Cook trudging back to the pavilion after that old weakness, the tentative prod outside off stump, had been exposed once again, was to see a much loved but sickly family pet being taken to the vet for a one way visit. Really, it might be kinder to let him go now.It was Cook upon whom this new look England team was founded. It was Cook who was supposed to supply the runs to empower that team; Cook who was supposed to grow into the role of captain and lead this side for the next four or five years.But, after a run of form so grim that it should be hidden from the young, the pregnant and those with heart conditions, it is becoming increasingly hard to avoid the conclusion that it is not going to happen.Nobody doubts Cook’s good intentions or his determination. But he is now averaging 14.33 this year. He has now gone nine innings since reaching 30 and 27 innings since reaching 100. Since the start of the 2013 Ashes, he averages 23.62. This cannot go on.For every sign of improvement in his captaincy – and there were a few at Trent Bridge – there is a counter sign that reinforces concerns. Some of England’s tactics here – the six men on the boundary for a No. 10 batsmen; the barrage of short balls on a green wicket – have been baffling.While he has certainly been let down by his senior players, one wonders how effectively Cook is leading them. Would James Anderson, whose on-pitch snarling does nothing to improve his bowling, have found himself in a position where he could be charged with a Level 3 offence under a stronger captain; a captain who might have nipped the argument with Ravindra Jadeja in the bud; a captain who might have told Anderson to stop the posturing and allow his bowling to do the talking?And might a stronger captain have taken his leading seamers to one side after lunch on the fourth day when their awful bowling was allowing India to build a definitive lead? Might a stronger captain have either take them out of the attack or make it clear that they had to pitch the ball fuller? Instead Cook retained faith in them. Faith that has, of late, been largely misplaced. Blind, even.But perhaps it is not the new era that is struggling. Perhaps the problem is that fragments of England’s old era remain and continue to impede the fresh team that is attempting to break through. Perhaps this era is not new enough.The new, or recalled, players – the likes of Gary Ballance, Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Liam Plunkett – are actually performing pretty well. It is the players of the old era who are failing. An old era that continues to decay.

England won the toss in a situation where that should have provided a match-defining advantage. They are playing against an India team who have not won a Test away from home since June 2011; a team of which only two had played a Test in England before this series; a team which has only won one Test at Lord’s; a modest team in a rebuilding phase of its own

Anderson’s bowling after lunch on the fourth day here was wretched. Petulant, immature and self-defeating, it was inspired more by bravado and anger than professionalism. Despite overwhelming evidence that it is the fuller delivery that is causing batsmen trouble on this pitch, 83% of the spell was short as Anderson, desperate to avenge what he sees as the injustice Jadeja has done to his reputation, seemed to allow his temper to get the better of him. Jadeja feasted upon it and played the innings that might well settle the game.Matt Prior, meanwhile, looks a broken man. It is not simply that he has missed several chances, it is that, in no home Test since 1934, has an England keeper conceded more than the 36 byes Prior has conceded here. In the four Tests this summer, he has conceded 77 byes in all. There are, as ever, extenuating circumstances, but England are deluding themselves if they conclude anything other than the time has come to move on.Even Ian Bell, who might be considered an option as captain if his own form was better, is struggling. Since his wonderful Ashes series last year, he has played nine Tests, batted 17 times and averaged 25.87 without a century. To be fair to him, he received a brute of a delivery that kept horribly low in the second innings here. But this side require more from their senior players and Bell is currently struggling to deliver.What does all this tell us? Might it tell us that it is the England environment that is partially at fault? That those players scarred by events in Australia, wearied by the relentless schedule and jaded by exposure to the England coaching regime are no longer able to perform at their optimum? Might it tell us that the answer lies in new recruits? In a truly new age?Some context is required. England won the toss in a situation where that should have provided a match-defining advantage. They are playing against an India team who have not won a Test away from home since June 2011; a team of which only two had played a Test in England before this series; a team which has only won one Test at Lord’s; a modest team in a rebuilding phase of its own. If England cannot win in such circumstances, it is hard to envisage any in which they can.There are parallels between this match and the Mumbai Test of November 2012. Then, just as now, the home team won the toss in conditions ideal for them but were defeated. In Mumbai it was England’s spinners who out-bowled their counterparts; here the India seamers have out-bowled England’s. Worryingly for England, they were out-bowled by Sri Lanka’s for part of the previous series, too.It should not matter if England pull-off a miracle run-chase on the final. It would simply mask problems that have become too obvious to ignore. The old order has failed; a new one must be ushered in.

Aka everything you wanted to know about the New Zealand-England Test series but were afraid to ask

Andy Zaltzman05-Mar-2013It has been a largely cricket-free week in Confectionery Stall Towers. Brief glimpses of Xavier Doherty looking thoughtful, as if he was contemplating what on earth went wrong with his usually rock-solid recipe for spaghetti carbonara, or coming to a higher understanding of why Shane Warne did not have many of his numerous great successes in India. A few excerpts of Cheteshwar Pujara batting like a surgeon. Occasional snippets of English commentators struggling to prevent their pre-Ashes confidence spilling over into the kind of giddy excitement usually associated with children on Christmas Eve in big houses with wide chimneys. Barely even enough time for my weekly commune with Statsguru. Tough times in the Zaltzman household. Albeit only for one of the Zaltzmans.England’s Test series in New Zealand, however, which begins tonight (New Zealanders may claim it begins tomorrow, but do not believe them, I have checked the schedules, and it definitely begins tonight), will hopefully rectify this harrowing personal cricket drought.As ever in the build-up to a series against the Kiwis, the streets of England have not exactly been overburdened with squadrons of police and emergency troops resorting to any available means, legal or otherwise, to keep under control a public aflame with the febrile frenzy of cricketous excitement. Nevertheless, this contest promises to be more interesting than the two teams’ respective rankings suggest it could be.England should win, and quite comfortably, against opponents who, in the five years since they shocked England with an outstanding victory in the first Test in Hamilton in 2008, have scored only three victories in 19 home Tests, two of which were against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and who, in their most recent foray into the Test arena, in January, were obliteratively squidged by South Africa in two utter humiliations. They have been fitful with bat and ball for too long, and England, although they fell considerably short in two of their three major challenges in the Test arena last year, have in recent times proved ruthless at demolishing weaker opposition.Nevertheless, party injuries permitting, the Kiwis do possess the kind of bowlers who have most discomfited England in recent years (swing bowlers) (i.e., the kind of bowlers who have most discomfited almost all teams in recent years) (and for much of cricket history). They have won in Australia and Sri Lanka in the past 18 months, and in their most recent home series, a year ago, they bowled out South Africa for under 260 in the first innings of two of the three Tests.Their greatest hope, however, is to commission a squadron of light aircraft to circle above the ground throughout the match, trailing banners spelling out in enormous letters the words: “Welcome To The FIRST TEST In Dunedin. That’s Dunedin, which, to confirm, is NOT IN ENGLAND.”England and first Tests away from home have not been harmonious bedfellows of late. In fact, they have been about as harmonious as a lion with a snoring problem bunking down in a one-man tent with a light-sleeping wildebeest.In their 13 away series since the 2005 Ashes, they have won one first Test, drawn three, and lost nine. Their sole victory was in Bangladesh, one of the draws required a frantic tenth-wicket rearguard to save the day, and in one of the others they conceded a 221-run first-innings deficit.England, it is fair to say, have tended not to start away series well. Even if they have been trying to concentrate really, really hard on starting away series well. They have hit the ground dozing, whacked the snooze button on their alarm clock, and mumbled something about wanting ten more minutes. After which, awakened by the chastening espresso of defeat, they have woken up. Since the Ashes whitewash of 2006-07 – when even the most industrial-strength coffee could not have saved them – they have played ten series away from home. In first Tests, they have won one, drawn two, and lost seven. In the remainder of those series, they have played 22, won ten, drawn eight, and lost four. So recent precedent suggests New Zealand have to strike early, and then hope for the best, pray for rain, or run away.That Hamilton Test five years ago offers some hope for the home side. Then, they strangled England’s batting in the first innings – 348 all out in 173 overs – and skittled it in the second, when Chris Martin and Kyle Mills, inspired by the still-happily-non-existent ghost of Richard Hadlee, blasted England out for 110, with only Ian Bell passing 15.That was only England’s fourth Test loss in New Zealand, but all four have been fairly spectacular. Two of them have been very spectacular. The remorselessly unsuccessful grind to defeat in Hamilton in 2007-08 followed a rather frenetic capitulation in Auckland to conclude the drawn 2001-02 series, when Daryl Tuffey took nine wickets in the match, and Andre Adams three in each innings, in what remains his only Test.

New Zealand have fielded competent bowling attacks for most of the last decade, but they have not exactly been slicing through opponents like a divorced sushi chef through his ex-wife’s favourite goldfish

(This fact is one of 21st-century cricket’s greater mysteries. New Zealand have fielded competent bowling attacks for most of the last decade, but they have not exactly been slicing through opponents like a divorced sushi chef through his ex-wife’s favourite goldfish. Andre Adams has taken 614 first-class wickets at an average of 23, and has been in recent years one of the most influential players in English county cricket. He is a medium-paced swing bowler and an effective, hard-hitting lower-order batsman. He must feel like kidnapping Vernon Philander, scrawling the South African’s Test statistics in indelible ink all over his face, and dumping him in a cricket bag on the doorstep of the New Zealand cricket board’s headquarters with a handwritten message saying: “Here’s what you could have had.”)England’s two other Test losses in the land of the long white cloud were amongst the most eye-popping capitulations in their Test history. In the Christchurch Test in 1983-84, England did not merely plumb the cricketing depths, they installed a fully fitted bathroom, hot tub and steam room in the cricketing depths – bowled out for 82 and 93, to lose by an innings and 132 runs. Which was not the kind of batting form a side would have wanted to be in with a five-Test series against the West Indies looming the following summer.It was the only Test since 1895 in which England have been bowled out for under 100 in both innings, and one of only two completed Tests in which none of England’s top 6 passed 20 in either innings, the other being in Brisbane in 1950-51, when Len Hutton, then the best batsman in the world, was demoted to No. 8 to try to avoid the worst of a rain-affected horror pitch.Instrumental in New Zealand’s victory, as he was in almost all of New Zealand’s victories in the 1970s and 1980s, was Richard Hadlee – 99 off 81 balls, and match figures of 8 for 44 in 35 overs. Handy cricketer, that boy. The Kiwi Ajit Agarkar, in my book. (My book needs proofreading.) New Zealand only batted for 72 overs – the third shortest time a side has batted before going on to win by an innings.Six years previously, in Wellington, England had an even more catastrophic collapse, albeit only in one innings. Chasing just 137 to win, they anti-amassed a distinctly sub-heroic 64 all out – the first time a team had lost when chasing under 150 in the fourth innings of a Test since 1907 (and, until a similarly incompetent performance in Abu Dhabi last year, the only time England had done so since 1902). Hadlee took 6 for 26. He truly knew which end of a cricket ball to hold. The Southern Hemisphere Ronnie Irani.None of this suggests that England will lose in Dunedin, or in either of the two subsequent Tests in this series. As the old cricketing saying goes: “Precedent, schmecedent.” But, if England do lose any of those games, history – the flighty little minx that she is – suggests that it will probably be one of the most harrowing experiences of any England fan’s cricket-watching life. And absolutely unmissable viewing for the neutral.● In England’s three most recent away series, their first-innings scores have been 191 all out, 193 all out and 192 all out. Other than when they mauled Bangladesh, they have not scored over 360 in their first innings of an away series for seven years. In those ten innings, the only century was scored by Andrew Strauss in Chennai in 2008-09.● In England’s defeat in Hamilton in 2008, their match run rate was precisely 2.00 per over – their slowest in a Test in the last 12 years, and the slowest by any top-eight Test nation in a Test against New Zealand since the aforementioned 1983-84 series, when England scored at slower than 2 runs per over in two consecutive Tests.

Australia have excellent records against Pakistan and in World Cups, but Pakistan have some weapons which could hurt the Australians on Saturday

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan18-Mar-2011Australia against Pakistan pits one of the most efficient and successful ODI teams against one of the most talented and unpredictable ones. Though Australia haven’t been at their best in the tournament so far, they have still managed to register fairly convincing wins. In contrast, Pakistan have blown hot and cold. They defeated Sri Lanka but lost heavily against New Zealand. The head-to-head contests between the two teams in recent years have proved to be extremely one-sided. Australia have been ruthless in matches played against Pakistan since 2000, winning 26 and losing just seven. With nine wins in 11 meetings since 2007, Australia’s dominance has been even more pronounced in recent matches.Pakistan came close in the ODI series played in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 2009, eventually losing 3-2. The following series in Australia in 2010 was a no-contest with the hosts winning 5-0. While Pakistan have been able to upset many other teams in bigger tournaments, they have not quite been able to do the same against Australia. They have let Australia off the hook on numerous occasions, in all formats, and allowed them to seize control. Two of the most recent matches when Pakistan had a great chance to win include the infamous Sydney Test and the World Twenty-20 semi-final. In the semi-final, Michael Hussey’s remarkable hitting in the last few overs gave Australia a win in a game in which they seemed to have lost. Pakistan can, however, take heart from their excellent performance in the Champions Trophy in 2009 when they put up a superb fight in a close loss to Australia.Australia’s 34-match undefeated streak in World Cups started just after their 10-run loss to Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup. Pakistan’s unpredictability came to the fore In their next meeting against Australia in the final of the same tournament, where they were bowled out for just 132. In the 2003 World Cup, Pakistan again had Australia in trouble at 86 for 4 before a fantastic century from Andrew Symonds carried Australia to 310 and a comfortable win. Pakistan, having defeated Sri Lanka in a tight contest, will have the advantage of knowing the conditions in Colombo while Australia, whose game at the venue was abandoned, will come into the game hoping for a challenging contest before the knockout stages.

The gulf between the two sides is far more evident if the batting and bowling stats are compared. Australia are far ahead on both fronts in ODIs played since 2008. Pakistan, though, have a slightly quicker rate of scoring which is predominantly because of more matches played in batting-friendly conditions. Australia have a stunning record in India and have a win-loss ratio of 1.87 against India in ODIs in India since 2000. Pakistan, despite having a fairly good record themselves in India, are still much poorer in terms of the batting and bowling averages. In global tournaments since 2003, Australia are unmatched. With 36 wins and only two losses, they are by far ahead of any other ODI team. The difference between their batting and bowling runs-per-wicket figure is an almost unbelievable 29.39.

Australia average higher and score at a faster rate in the first ten overs in ODIs played since 2008. Pakistan’s frail top order has meant that they have been unable to stitch together many decent partnerships. In the middle overs, Pakistan have been slightly more adept at handling spin. They have scored slightly faster than Australia and have also been more economical in the same period while bowling. Pakistan’s powerful middle order of Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi has meant that they score at 7.51 runs per over in the end overs which is second only to South Africa’s 7.76. Pakistan, who were guilty of conceding more than 100 runs against New Zealand in the last five overs of their game in Pallekele, have been less economical than Australia in the final overs of the innings.

Shane Watson has been one of Australia’s best batsmen in the last three years and has scored his runs with a high percentage of boundaries. After an indifferent start to the tournament, he played himself back into form against Canada with an aggressive 94. His partnership with Brad Haddin has been one of the most successful opening combinations for Australia and will be a huge threat for Pakistan. Michael Clarke has been in excellent touch in ODIs while the inclusion of Michael Hussey is a boost to Australia’s middle order not just because of Hussey’s brilliance in ODIs, but also because of his record against Pakistan in all forms of the game. Hussey has maintained an excellent strike rate and has the lowest dot-ball percentage among top-order Australian batsmen.The two batsmen who haven’t showed form so far in the tournament are Cameron White and Ricky Ponting. Ponting, who is the second-highest run-getter in World Cups, has scored just 83 runs in the 2011 tournament at an average of under 21.Of Ponting’s 29 ODI hundreds, 25 have come in wins, but Australia have also won a high percentage of their matches under Ponting’s captaincy when he has scored less than 25.

Apart from Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan, the rest of the Pakistani batting has been highly inconsistent in recent matches. Kamran Akmal, who scored 116 in Pakistan’s most recent win over Australia, has a fairly high boundary percentage and could be a key batsman. Afridi has an extraordinary strike rate over 130 and a very low dot-ball percentage, but he will be up against a high-class pace attack on Saturday.

Australa’s pace attack has proved to be expensive in the early overs in the last two games. However, Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson have excellent strike rates and form a potent new-ball attack. The spinners Jason Krejza and Steven Smith have not been very effective, though, and on a track that is likely to assist spin, their bowling could be a vital factor against a Pakistan line-up that generally handles spin quite well.Afridi, the highest wicket taker in the tournament, has also bowled superbly against Australia in recent ODIs. He will however, hope for a far more consistent performance from his pace attack which went for more than 100 runs in the last few overs against New Zealand.While Australia’s pace attack has a better average and lower boundary percentage than Pakistan’s, their spin attack is not quite as potent. Pakistan spinners, dspite averaging slightly higher, have been more economical and conceded fewer runs in boundaries than their Australian counterparts.

The Premadasa stadium in Colombo is one of the toughest wickets to chase on and is loaded in favour of teams batting first. In day-night games, winning the toss provides a distinct advantage. Teams batting first have won 17 and lost just three of the last 22 day-night games that have been played at the venue.