Australian captain Michael Clarke said his batsmen will study television footage in a bid to get the edge on a threatening Pakistani spin attack in the second one-day international here Friday. Leg-spinner Shahid Afridi took a career-best 6-38 and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal chipped in with 2-19 to bundle Australia out for a lowly 168 in the first match here Wednesday.
Pakistan also made heavy weather of the modest run-chase as they won by four wickets - but not before the 45th over - for a 1-0 lead in the five-match one-day series. There had been much talk leading up to the series that Pakistan's spinners would be instrumental against Australia, who are considered weak against slower bowlers.
Australian captain Michael Clarke said after Wednesday's defeat watching footage of Pakistan's spinners would be key. "Obviously the ball spinning both ways makes it harder for the batsmen so we need to have individual plans for each batsman," he said.
Australia have lost their last three one-day series, including home and away defeats against South Africa, mostly failing against spinners. But Clarke denied that his side couldn't handle spin. "That's funny, I certainly don't think we do ever have weakness against spinners but we haven't been performing as well as we would have liked against them.
"So whether we like it or not we are going to face a lot of it (spin), and we need to practise hard against them, especially on a wicket like that." Clarke, standing in for regular captain Ricky Ponting - rested for this series along with Michael Hussey and Mitchell Johnston - said David Hussey would come into reckoning for the second match. "I expect more spin on Friday. We have David in the squad who can also bowl spin and that may be handy on this pitch," said Clarke of the Dubai Stadium, which became the 172nd venue in the world to stage a one-day.
Pakistan captain Younus Khan said he was pleased things were going according to plan. "When I was discussing the team selection with coach Intikhab Alam we considered the fact that Australians are vulnerable against off-spinners, so we picked Ajmal who kept pressure at one end and Afridi did the rest from the other," said Younus.
But Younus warned that Australia would come out hard against Pakistan on Friday. "I look at consistency and if someone has taken two wickets he must go for four and batsmen (must) also score more runs," said Younus. "It wasn't an easy victory in the first match. Had it been a six or seven wicket win I would have been more pleased but a win is a win and if you win the first match you get the needed confidence," said Younus. After the first two matches, the teams move to Abu Dhabi for the remaining three matches on April 27, May 1 and 3. The only Twenty20 will be played in Dubai on May 7.