Published: Feb 21, 2015, 03:28 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 21, 2015, 05:07 PM (IST)
When the two most unpredictable sides of the tournament – West Indies and Pakistan clashed in their second game of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 at Christchurch, the most unexpected was expected. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Full Coverage
Winning the toss and electing to field, Pakistan dropped a total of four catches and despite of having West Indies on the back-foot for the major part of the day, they conceded 310 from their 50 overs. A large credit goes to the dropped chances and some pathetic fielding effort. At one stage they were 167 for three after 37 overs, with Darren Bravo forced to retire hurt for 49.
Wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin went on to score 51, Lendl Simmons followed up his hundred in the last game with a quick fifty. Darren Sammy made a cameo appearance with 30, but the brute onslaught was left for Andre Russell, who truly threatened to break AB de Villiers’ fastest fifty record, if not then he would have certainly gone past Brendon McCullum’s fastest fifty feat from 18 balls, that the New Zealand captain registered a day earlier. Russell’s unbeaten 42 from 13 balls took the West Indies score to 310.
Pakistan lost four wickets with just one run on the board, with Jerome Taylor picking three of them. Despite West Indies trying to match Pakistan’s efforts in dropping catches, the team from subcontinent never really recovered. There was some resistance from the lower order (Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi) but all that did was help them salvage some pride, improve the net-run rate and reduced the victory margin. At one for four, even the most optimistic fan thought that getting bowled out under 50 was also possible.
Andre Russell picked up three wickets to complete a man-of-the-match performance.
Brief scores:
West Indies 310 for 6 in 50 overs (Darren Bravo 49*, Denesh Ramdin 51, Lendl Simmons 50, Andre Russell 42*) bt Pakistan 160 in 39 overs (Sohaib Maqsood 50, Umar Akmal 59; Jerome Taylor 3-15, Andre Russell 3-33)
