Agence France Presse

Melbourne, February 2:

Preserving early wickets will be vital if Pakistan are to continue their recent run of form into the Tri-series limited-overs cricket finals against Australia, skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq said. Pakistan completed back-to-back wins over Australia and West Indies on Tuesday to grab a finals berth and help erase memories of their 3-0 Test whitewash by the hosts.

Their massive 307 innings against West Indies — highlighted by a knock of 105 from Yousuf Youhana while Inzamam himself scored 74 — was the second highest in a one-day international at the Western Australian Cricket Association Ground. Just as importantly, strike bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan grabbed 4-29 off 9.1 overs to end the Windies’ hopes of overhauling the total.

Inzamam, who has been under pressure to keep the captain’s job, said Pakistan had been working on keeping wickets intact early in the innings, setting the scene for big-hitters such as Shahid Afridi later on. “If you look at the last couple of games... if you save wickets then in the last 20 or 30 overs you can score anything,” he said. “The last game against West Indies they had a couple of wickets in hand and they scored 340-odd runs, so it is important that we apply that.”

“I know it is tough opposition but if we really work hard then well, hopefully we will perform well in the finals,” he said. He said his own form had improved at the right time as had that of Yousuf and allrounders Afridi and Abdul Razzaq and strike bowler Rana.

The Australians are still under pressure over their opening combination following the continuing poor form of Matthew Hayden.

Coach John Buchanan again threw his support behind Hayden, whose position is under threat from Michael Clark, who has moved up the order to open at various times with huge success.

Hayden has scores of 6, 27, 3 and 6 in his four matches in the limited overs series while Clarke has a strike-rate of almost 95.

“Out of the 14, at the moment we could place any group, I believe, on the field and play just as well,” he said. Constant rain forced Australia to train indoors on Wednesday, while Pakistan rested. Both teams are expected to name their sides on Friday.