Wed, 23 Mar 2011 - Pakistan vs West Indies, World Cup 2011, 1st Quarter Final Match - Bulletin

All-round Pakistan decimate West Indies on route to semis

In what could be termed as one of the most convincing victories in the annals of the world cup, Pakistan decimated the West Indies by ten wickets to storm into the semifinals of 2011 world cup.

Pakistan will now await the winner of tomorrow’s game between India and Australia for the epic semi-final clash in Mohali.

It was one of those days (and nights too) when whatever Pakistani players turned their hands to, turned into gold. The same however could not be said for the West Indians. Apart from winning the toss, nothing went into the favor of the Carribean side as they were outplayed in all the three departments of this mercurial Pakistani squad.

The game was set up for Pakistan by their bowlers who, in a display of some magnificent bowling performance, bowled West Indian for a paltry 112 in 43.3 overs.

Afridi was again the most successful among Pakistani bowlers picking up for wickets for 30 runs while Ajmal and Hafeez claimed 2 wickets a piece. Gul scalped one.

Hafeez deserves special mention here as his part-time spin bamboozled top order batsmen early and put a spell of them – a spell West Indians could not find ways to come out from.

Introduced in the very secnd over of the game, Hafeez jolted West Indian by removing Devon Smith and Darren Bravo within the space of 5 balls in his second over. Hafeez’s figures of 2 for 16 in his ten overs were something even a frontline bowler would have felt proud of.

The only resistance from West Indies came in the form of Shivnarain Chanderpaul(44 n.o. in 106) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (24 in 68 ) who put together a sedate 42 run-stand for the fourth wicket in 19 overs before Pakistani bowlers made a mess of west Indian innings.

Prior to this game, batting had seemed the only weak link in Pakistan’s armour. However, this aspect of game too was sorted out in the game as Pakistani openers made a light of west Indian total knocking off the required amount of runs in the 21st over.

Mohammed Hafeez who followed his match turning spell with an unbeaten half century was named man of the match.

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