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Here they come, rounding into the straight...

On the flight from Melbourne to Sydney, the Pakistani cricketers were in high spirits. There was a lot of laughter, the odd pillow was thrown as indeed was a wink in the direction of the air-hostess. The uninformed would have thought they had won something major. Is there a story there, I wonder?

And yet, the previous night, Australia had won quite convincingly after Steve Waugh had produced another masterly innings. In that genre, with his back to the wall and victory a vision merely for his eyes, he has to be the best in the world. The loss of a wicket seems to release more spirit within him and sometimes, it would seem, Australia are better served through losing a couple and firing the captain awake.

Once Shoaib Akhtar's spell had been negotiated, and Channel 9 had released their cameras from concentrating on the ball in the hands of the Pakistani fast bowlers, Waugh flowered. In his presence, Damien Martyn seemed to enjoy the fruits of longevity as well and he will realise that it always helps to get a substantial score while batting alongside the captain.

The other Waugh though, just having closed the debate over his Test place, is opening another in the one-day game. In four innings he now has scores of 1,7, 3 and 12 and fraternal instincts are already being spoken of in hushed breaths. The questions to brother Steve are still polite, but there is a more strident tone in the newspapers, far away as they are from a direct confrontation. Mark Waugh has won himself another four games though the thread he hangs by grows increasingly slender. It is going to be a difficult week for him.

Given the roll they are on, Australia must believe they have done enough to have earned a place in the final already. It is Pakistan who have a big week coming up and the Australian Cricket Board must secretly be hoping that they stumble a bit. If they win both their matches, they will go up to 8 points and, almost certainly, render the rest of the matches in the series irrelevant. For in that event, India will have to win their last four matches and Australia will have to lose their last three to open up a place in the final. If however, they lose both, India will get a toe in and that is something that the ACB will not mind given that it will lead to greater interest and higher gates.

The truth is that while Pakistan's bowling is serving them fine, their batting has been disappointing. Saqlain Mushtaq has scored almost as many runs as Saeed Anwar and Yousuf Yohanna and more than Ijaz Ahmad, Inzamamul Huq and the three other openers combined. And their fielding is falling away very quickly. In low scoring matches, every run saved is critical and Pakistan, like India, have let too many balls get away easily. Skill, rather than science, is still the favoured approach on the sub-continent.

That is where Australia have such a big advantage. They are quite happy playing a bowler short to strengthen their batting and that will be further accentuated by the inclusion of Ian Harvey who Steve Waugh reckons is the best end-overs bowler in the country. Harvey is a very decent batsman as well and that he should occupy number nine must make this the deepest batting line up in world cricket today.

But I think they are getting away by the fact that nobody has attacked the new ball. If the opening burst doesn't produce a wicket, the likes of Martyn, Lee and Symonds would struggle to keep the runs down against well-set batsmen. But Glenn McGrath and Damien Fleming have invariably done the job and in doing so, have protected the lesser bowlers. I believe that if Pakistan can prevent themselves from losing early wickets at the SCG, they have a great chance of going after the lesser bowlers. And remember, as Razzaq showed at Melbourne, even McGrath can be hit for a lot of runs in the end.

Pakistan might just toy with the idea of playing him as opener given that anybody they pick gets out early. It will allow them to play Azhar Mahmood at number six, a place he has occupied in Test matches as well, followed by Moin Khan and Wasim Akram. And in case one of the bowlers has an off day, there is a very high quality bowler around. It is a strategy they might use at Hobart in case there is an early fall of wickets again at the SCG.

Interestingly, they will be up on the same track on which India were decimated five days ago. Hopefully it will play a lot better because that was not a good wicket for one-day cricket. Grassy tracks and Kookaburra balls with high seams are not the best recipe for overseas teams. But is that why they are there in the first place?

Harsha Bhogle