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Yesterday’s Quarter Final Match between Pakistan and West Indies at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur was a damp squib! It was a hopelessly one-sided contest with West Indies getting bundled out for a paltry 112. Pakistan chased the ridiculously low target with 175 balls to spare in a 10-wicket win to storm into the Semi Finals. The 1992 World Cup winners would face either Australia or India in the Semi Final Match at Mohali.
Toss and Teams: West Indies won the toss and elected to bat first and their line-up was boosted with the comeback of Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Kemar Roach. Andre Russell and Sulieman Benn were suprisingly dropped from the XI. Pakistan made one change with off spinner Saeed Ajmal getting included in the place of Abdur Rehman to counter the West Indian left handers.
West Indies Innings
Mohammad Hafeez with his flattish off breaks opened the bowling along with Umar Gul. Chris Gayle looked to over dominate the Pakistani bowling but only to perish when he smacked an Umar Gul delivery straight into the hands of Afridi at mid off in the 3rd over. The other opener Devon Smith who is in-form played a couple of good square cuts before he was trapped by a drifter from Hafeez in the 6th over. In the same over, Hafeez struck again by having Darren Bravo lbw.
West Indies were pegged back at 16 for 3 when Sarwan was joined by Chanderpaul. The experienced duo then played the game like a Test Match by giving more preference in keeping their wickets intact rather than pushing the scoreboard forward. In the 25th over, Sarwan (24 from 68 balls) looking to up the ante slashed a wide delivery from Afridi straight into the hands of point to make it 58 for 4! In the 27th over, Afridi sent back Pollard and Thomas back to the hutch in two consecutive deliveries. In the very next over, Saeed Ajmal joined the party with two doosra that got Sammy Out LBW and left handed Devendra Bishoo bowled through the gate.
It was 71 for 8 in the 28th over and Windies were on the mat to get bowled out for less than a hundred. However, Afridi let them away by removing himself and Saeed Ajmal from the attack. Chanderpaul and Kemar Roach were then presented with some soft bowling and the pair dragged the innings along easily. In the 43rd over, Roach decided to go for a slog against the innocuous Abdul Razzaq but only to drag him straight into the hands of mid wicket. Roach lasted 43 balls to score 16 while lifting Windies to 111 for 9. Shahid Afridi finished the innings by beating a sweep shot down the legside by the left handed Ravi Rampaul to bowl him through the legs with a googly. Chanderpaul remained stranded on a slow 44* from 106 balls.
Shahid Afridi captured figures of 9.3-1-30-4. Mohammad Hafeez, the part time off spinner bowled out his quota of 10 overs giving away only 16 runs with three maidens and two top order wickets.
Pakistani Innings
The opening pair of Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal had a breezy start by cashing upon anything that was too wide or onto their pads. The West Indian new attack got belted around and the match was coming to an end in no time! It was all over in the 21st over with Mohammd Hafeez cruising through for an unbeaten 61 from 64 balls (with 10 fours) along with Kamran Akmal who got 47* in 61 balls with 7 fours.
Mohammad Hafeez for his all-round efforts got the Man of the Match.