West Indies blow away chicken-hearted Pakistan

The short ball. There are so many ways to deal with it but Pakistan, it was apparent, couldn’t figure a single one of them as they were bounced into submission by a rampaging West Indies in their opening game of the ICC World Cup at Trent Bridge on Friday.

On a wicket where 400-plus totals have become almost as common as mangoes in the Pakistani summer, Sarfraz Ahmed and his men were slaughtered like lambs by a fired-up West Indian pace battery.

Put into bat, Pakistan were skittled out for a mere 105 in 21.4 overs – their second lowest total in World Cup history. West Indies raced to the finish line in just 13.4 overs with a half-fit Chris Gayle smashing a 34-ball fifty. West Indies won by a whopping 218 balls to spare – the highest in a World Cup game.

It was an embarrassing batting display by Pakistan, who have been camped in England for several weeks and had been scoring 300-plus totals quite frequently in the lead up to the World Cup.

But against some relentless short-pitched stuff from West Indies on a wicket that held no real demons, Pakistan’s batting line-up was fully exposed. The West Indians bowled 68 short balls against Pakistan and picked seven wickets from them.

Opener Imam-ul-Haq looked awfully out of sorts in his World Cup debut falling for just 2 from 11. His opener partner Fakhar Zaman had a better start but was undone by a short-pitched ball by Andre Russell that was bowled at a lively pace. With his 22 Fakhar was the joint highest-scorer for Pakistan along with Babar Azam.

Their wickets fell at regular intervals as Pakistan failed to counter the trio of Russell (2-4), Jason Holder (3-42) and young pacer Oshane Thomas (4-27). Things would have been even worse for Pakistan but a 22-run stand for the last wicket between Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir helped them get into three figures.

The run-chase was supposed to be a formality and even though the Windies lost three wickets, they were never in any kind of real trouble.

The only silver lining for Pakistan was the fact that Mohammad Amir managed to rediscover his wicket-taking ability. The left-armer took the field at Trent Bridge with an awful track record in the last couple of years but showed glimpses of his past brilliance as he picked up all three West Indian wickets that fell in the brief run-chase. His 3-26 was Amir’s first three-wicket haul since his fiery spell in the ICC Champions Trophy final at the Oval in 2017 when he picked up 3-16 including the prized scalp of Indian captain Virat Kohli.

Though still unable to generate a lively pace, Amir managed to find some movement as he scalped Shai Hope (11), Darren Bravo (0) and Chris Gayle (50).

But it was a different story at the other end. While Amir tried to give is best, his new-ball partner Hasan Ali didn’t even come close to creating any sort of problems for the West Indian top-order. Hasan gave away 39 runs from his four overs, failing to give the sort of performance that made him one of Pakistan’s pace stars back in 2017. Since making his presence felt in his salad days, Hasan’s performance graph has dipped, something that must be an alarming sign for Pakistan as they look to bounce back from Friday’s thrashing.

They should also be concerned about Wahab Riaz. There was a reason why the left-armer was dumped after a poor showing in the ICC Champions Trophy two years ago. He was confined to the bench after India hammered him for 87 runs from 8.4 overs in a Champions Trophy group match in Birmingham. Before that in an ODI against England in Nottingham, he was smashed for 110 runs from 10 overs.

He failed to inspire mush trust in his brief spell on Friday either. Gayle toyed with him as he hit boundaries at will and Wahab ended with figures of 0-40 from 3.4 overs.

Wahab’s role will come under the microscope after Friday’s game. Haris Sohail, who was included in the line-up in place of the big-hitting Asif Ali, will also find it tough to keep his place.

Pakistan do not have much time to regroup. They will take on title favourites England in their second game at Trent Bridge on Monday and will need to quickly find ways and means to counter the all-conquering hosts.