Deadline: May 31, 2019 at 3 PM IST
Venue: Trent Bridge, Nottingham
Pitch report
Less than two weeks ago we saw England square off with Pakistan at Trent Bridge. There was hardly anything on offer for the bowlers. Tom Curran took 4 wickets, but 2 of them came in the death overs, 1 was of a half-centurion, and 1 was of a centurion – all this at the expense of 75 runs in 10 overs.
Pakistan scored 340 and England chased it down with 3 balls to spare. Expect nothing less on Friday. The likes of Chris Gayle and Fakhar Zaman will be itching to take centre stage.
The average first and second innings scores read 252 and 219 respectively. To fan the flames, the highest ODI total, 481 for 6, was scripted at the very venue. England smashed the Australian bowlers to pulp. Have a exhaustive analysis before selecting your fantasy cricket team.
Probable XI for West Indies: Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope (wk), Darren Bravo, Shimron Hetmyer, Andre Russell, Jason Holder (c), Ashley Nurse, Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach, Sheldon Cottrell
Probable XI for Pakistan: Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez/Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Sarfraz Ahmed (c & k), Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Shadab Khan, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir
Head-to-head in World Cup
West Indies (7 wins) – Pakistan (3 wins)
Preview
If anything that will stop Pakistan from lifting the World Cup 2109, it will be their athleticism – they don’t display any. Their fielding has always been ordinary and their running between the wickets has always been funny. There are no questions over their bowling skills, for few, very few countries produce talented pacers like Pakistan do. And then there’s their batsmen who often blow hot and cold. They either dramatically collapse from winning positions or dramatically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat – drama remains constant.
West Indies, on the other hand, have been in an upward surge. They levelled 2-2 against England, the No. 1 team, at home earlier this year, and look mightier than ever. It won’t come as a surprise if they stormed into the semi-finals.
It will be Gayle’s last World Cup and he will leave no stone unturned to make it memorable. Pakistan will bear in mind the fact that Gayle is the first man to score a double-hundred in a World Cup. To make matters more interesting, his last four ODI innings read 135, 50, 162, and 77.
Then there is Andre Russell, Player of the Tournament in the recently concluded IPL. He blasted 510 runs with a mind-boggling strike rate of 204.8 and took 11 wickets at 26.09.
Pakistan too have swaggering batsmen. Their top three – Fakhar, Imam-ul-Haq, and Babar – scored hundreds earlier this month in the five-ODI series in England. If anything, they are already accustomed to the English conditions.
However, it all boils down to how both teams bowl. The pitch isn’t going to help them. It is flat as a subcontinent wicket, with shorter boundaries. We will often witness the ball soaring into the stands.
West Indies are likely to play three pacers in Gabriel, Roach, and Cottrell, along with a wily spinner in Nurse. Pakistan meanwhile face a selection conundrum. They have recalled seniors Amir and Riaz, but there are also the potent likes of Shaheen Afridi and Hasnain to choose from.
To cut a long story short, it all depends on the weather and pitch on the morning of the match. It is going to be cloudy throughout the day.
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