Azhar urges team to repeat intensity of Wahab-Watson spell in Adelaide

Pakistan captain Azhar Ali has called on his team to repeat the fierce intensity of the unforgettable spell of fast bowling by Wahab Riaz to Shane Watson during the 2015 World Cup.

Pakistan will play Australia at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday for the fifth and final ODI of the series, which has already been decided in the hosts’ favour. The ground, however, will bring back memories of the fierce moments exchanged between the left arm quick Wahab and the now retired Watson.

It was a spell which Watson later described as “nasty” and which, according to captain Michael Clarke, was one of the best spells of fast bowling that he had faced in his one-day career “in quite some time”.

Addressing a press conference at the Adelaide Oval today (Wednesday), Azhar urged the Green Shirts to channel that energy and passion in Thursday’s match.

“That spell was brilliant that day, so hopefully whoever gets the opportunity can try and do the same,” the skipper said, cricket.com.au reported.

“It’s really important tomorrow that everybody turns up with that intensity and trying to win the game for Pakistan. You have to come every game and every individual find the best out of himself and get his match-winning performance.

“The series is definitely decided but every game is important, and for us to finish the tour well is very important.”

‘Doing a lot of practice’

On Pakistan’s embarrassingly poor fielding in Sydney, Azhar said the team had worked hard on their fielding but admitted the SCG performance was a low point for the side.

"We have been doing a lot of practice, so we can’t fault that,” Azhar said.

"Obviously the performance we did in the field (in Sydney) was nowhere near good enough. You can say it’s one of the days you want to forget and start fresh again and try and get every opportunity you can…

“On that day we were just very poor. So we just want to get our concentration right, our focus right and try and get it better."

The Pakistan team did a practice session at the Adelaide Oval today.

Pakistan Team practice session at Adelaide Oval #AUSvPAK

For more pictures: https://t.co/0UpRhLbf0i pic.twitter.com/KiAGktCP40

— PCB Official (@TheRealPCB) January 25, 2017