A much anticipated contest expected to be closely fought, turned out to be a disaster for Pakistan as West Indies crushed the ‘Green Shirts’ by 150 runs.
The Pool-B match between the two sides coming from tough first match loses proved to be one-sided-all credit to Andre Russell. The West Indian all-rounder shone with both bat and ball. He scored a riveting 42 runs off 13 balls (three 4’s & four 6’s) which guided West Indies past the 300-run mark to post 310 runs from 50 overs.
With the ball, Russell dismissed the Pakistan skipper, Misbah-ul-Haq for a cheap 7 runs. He went on to pick the crucial wickets of Umar Akmal and Wahab Riaz, which signaled the end of Pakistan’s fighting back hopes. He was deservedly award the Man of the Match award for his performance.
Earlier, in the first innings, though West Indies got off to a quiet start, they kept wickets in hand which made them go into rampage mode later in the innings. Every batsman chipped in with crucial contributions which made the two-time World Cup winners put up a challenging total of 310 for 6 in 50 overs. Denesh Ramdin (51), Lendl Simmons (50), Darren Sammy (30) and Andre Russell (42*) contributed when it mattered the most. Mohammad Irfan was the only economical bowler for Pakistan and he finished with figures of 10-44-1.
The Pakistan batting line-up crumbled like a pack of cards with Jerome Taylor ripping through Pakistan’s opening order. Pakistan were four wickets down with just one run on board when Umar Akmal and Sohaib Maqsood began to construct an important partnership. When the duo was in the middle there was some hope for Pakistan but their world came crashing down when big man, Sulieman Benn dived to take an amazing catch to dismiss Maqsood, off Darren Sammy. West Indies had broken an all-important partnership and more importantly the morale of the Pakistan team.
Though Shahid Afridi joined hands with Umar Akmal to build another good partnership, the asking rate kept increasing till it reached 9 runs an over. That was when Umar Akmal fell leaving behind a hapless Afridi to rescue Pakistan. But with no support from the other end, Afridi could do nothing but watch West Indies crush his side to the worst-ever defeat by runs margin in a World Cup match.
The previous worst defeat by runs for Pakistan came when they were defeated by England at Capetown in World Cup 2003 edition.