Pakistan Seek to Avoid Clean-sweep Against England

Dubai: Pakistan coach Mohsin Khan said his team will need to raise their standards in all three departments to stop England from a clean sweep of the one-day series in the fourth match on Tuesday.

Pakistan are on the receiving end in the one-day series after blanking England 3-0 in the preceding Test series, with Khan stressing his team needed improvement.

"We have not played well as we did in the Tests. I will not take any credit away from England but we have to look at ourselves and we need to raise our standards in all three departments to avoid defeat," Khan said on Monday.

It's anyone's guess what Pakistan will do, especially as a number of players are suffering from flu. A dead ODI would appear the perfect chance to play Hammad Azam, the allrounder, while it also offers the chance to look at Junaid Khan, perhaps at the expense of the struggling Gul.

Pakistan have been outsmarted by England who rode on back-to-back hundreds by skipper Alastair Cook to win the first two matches in Abu Dhabi and then Kevin Pietersen hammered an unbeaten century -- his first since 2008 - to win the third match on Saturday.

Paceman Steven Finn has taken 11 wickets in three matches to destroy Pakistan's batting.

England have whitewashed Pakistan in a 3-0 series once, on their 1987 tour.

Eoin Morgan admitted England have a good opportunity to blank Pakistan.

"There's certainly an opportunity to do that. We do want to win 4-0 and if the opportunity arises we could give players (reserves) a bit of experience, but the priority is to win the game," said Morgan.

Morgan said England have progressed well in one-day cricket after being thrashed 5-0 in India last year.

England's only questions are rest and rotation. Jos Buttler and Tim Bresnan were both expected to figure in this series but injuries meant being sat on the sidelines. It's now hard to find space in the team, although Bresnan for James Anderson remains a logical switch.

Teams from

England AN Cook (capt), JM Anderson, JM Bairstow, RS Bopara, TT Bresnan, DR Briggs, SCJ Broad, JC Buttler (wk), JW Dernbach, ST Finn, C Kieswetter (wk), EJG Morgan, SR Patel, KP Pietersen, GP Swann, IJL Trott

Pakistan Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Abdur Rehman, Adnan Akmal (wk), Aizaz Cheema, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Hammad Azam, Imran Farhat, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Younis Khan

Pitch and conditions
The surface for Saturday's game produced more pace and bounce than has been seen throughout the tour which certainly didn't suit Pakistan's game. Neither did batting first help them much. The same pitch is due to be used again which means there may be a little more assistance for the spinners.

Stats and trivia

• The most wickets by an England bowler in a one-day series is 15 in six matches by Paul Jarvis against India, in 1992-93, and Steven Finn currently has 11 scalps in three games.
• Alastair Cook is currently fourth in the list of most runs scored in a one-day series for England
• England have completed 10 previous whitewashes in a series of at least three matches while Pakistan have been whitewashed six times.

Match facts
Tuesday February 21, 2012 (day/night)
Start time 1500 local (1100 GMT, 16:00 Pak)