Champions Australia have already booked their quarterfinal spot and will hope to iron out any creases in their form against Canada in a World Cup Group A match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday.
Unbeaten so far, with three wins and one match washed out, Ricky Ponting’s men play the second of three matches this week before they move on to stiffer competition in the knockout stages. On Sunday, Australia beat Kenya by 60 runs.
Australia will play Pakistan in Colombo next Saturday in what will be each team’s last match in the round-robin stage.
The Australian batting line-up, bolstered by the return of Mike Hussey, will look to have another field day against Canada’s fairly blunt attack on the batting-friendly pitch as the business end of the tournament approaches.
Ponting will aim to get some runs under his belt himself and may shuffle the batting order to get Cameron White higher up the order to allow him to spend some time in the middle too.
Canada’s last
The skipper also has suggested that he might rest fast bowler Shaun Tait and give John Hastings his World Cup debut.
The Aussie spinners, Jason Krejza and Steve Smith, have been disappointing so far this in tournament, and will look to get some wickets against the North Americans whose best batsmen — captain Ashish Bagai and Jimmy Hansra — will still be exhausted after their efforts in vain against New Zealand on Sunday.
Both Bagai and Hansra made half centuries but were badly affected by cramps on a baking day in Mumbai.
This is Canada’s last match in the tournament and their only win in the tournament has been against Kenya. They will want to bow out with their heads held high in what is also the final match of the tournament at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. — Reuters
For all the latest Cricket World Cup news, in-depth features, match reports, scoreboards and more click here:
