West Indies Vs Pakistan Played at Nottingham on 31 St May 2019
West Indies 108/3 ( CH Gayle 50 , N Puran 34* , M Amir 3/26 ) beat Pakistan 105 All Out in 12.3 Overs ( FakharZaman 22, Babar Azam 22 , WahabRiaz 18, Mohammad Hafiz 16, O Thomas 4/27, JO Holder 3/42, AD Russel 2/4) by 7 wickets
Player of the Match Osane Thomas
Shell shocked Pakistan getting shocked and awed by fuming and fiery West Indies. Splendid fast bowling coupled with poor technique in negotiating short lifting deliveries by the Pakistani batsmen caused pathetic Pakistan getting crushed under West Indian bandwagon.
West Indies inflicted a huge defeat by 7 wickets when two teams could play only 34 overs of the allotted 100. The expected blockbuster match of the two former champions of the world did not live up to expectation as Pakistan found the going extremely difficult against barrage of fast short lifting deliveries aimed at rib cages . They neither had the technique nor the commitment for surviving. Thomas , Holder and Russell combined in slaughtering of Pakistan batting in the epic exhibition of fast bowling .
Put into bat on a bouncing wicket Cotrell started the rot having Imam UlHaq caught behind in the 3rdOver. Russell quickly removed Fakhar Zaman and Harris Sohail making it 3/45 by the 10thOver. Holder was bowling steady at the other end. He was joined by Osan Thomas for wrecking the havoc through Pakistan middle and late orders crushing them to 105 all out in only 21.4 overs, their second lowest score of World Cup history. Only Fakahar Zaman (22) , Babar Azam (22) , WahabRiaz ( 18) and Mohammad Hafiz (16) could reach double figures . 7 other batsmen scored between 0 and 8 totaling 22 only all together. It was an abject surrender of Pakistan batting to the might of West Indian probing pace attacking. Thomas led the pack with 4/27, Holder allied with 3/42 and Russell did the early damage with 2/4.
West Indies had little doing than cruising to comfortable victory in only 13.4 overs striking 108/3. A tornado named Christopher Henry Gayle wasted no time unleashing his havoc in racing to 50 in 34 deliveries. He struck 6 fours and 3 towering sixes in his usual hurricane innings. Young Nicolas Puran was also in murderous mood in his unbeaten 34 in 19 deliveries smoking 4 fours and 2 sixes. Amir bowled superbly taking all three wickets in his 6 overs giving away 26 runs. Hasan Ali and WahabRiaz were both blasted leaking 40 and 39 runs. West Indies won easy by 7 wickets announcing its intention loud and clear in this tournament.
The once impregnable team West Indies that had to qualify for this world cup now looking a strong candidate for moving into business round. They blasted formidable New Zealand attack producing426 in warm up match displayed their wonderful brand of sustained hostile bowling yesterday. If they can do that their explosive batting riches can take them sky high in the tournament.
Pakistan on the other hand was a bundle of nerves. Their batting had no excuses crumbling like cookies against hostile but effective fast bowling. Wasim Akram one of their heroes of the past was mentioning that in 1992 when Pakistan won the cup in Australia, Pakistan was also humiliated by West Indies losing by 10 wickets by West Indies. It will need lots of soul searching and regrouping. It is still very early in the long distance racing.
Many predicted that this world cup would be a run feast and bowlers would be butchered. But the match yesterday so quickly proved all wrong. This Pakistan team scored 300 plus runs against England in bilateral series almost regularly only few days back. Wonder how circumstances alter cases. We must not however take away any credit from the brilliant West Indies bowling.
BDST: 1025 HRS, JUNE 1, 2019
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