The West Indies on Friday crushed Pakistan by seven wickets in a one-sided contest at Trent Bridge as the two-time champions laid down a marker in their first match of the Cricket World Cup.
Pakistan had no answer to the West Indies’ fast bowlers and were bundled out for a paltry 105 in just 21.4 overs — their second-lowest World Cup total.
Man-of-the-match Oshane Thomas took four wickets and captain Jason Holder chipped in with three as Pakistan folded without much of a fight on the second day of the tournament in England and Wales.
Photo: AP
Chris Gayle then led the West Indies’ charge with a quick-fire 50 as the 1975 and 1979 champions cruised to victory in just 13.4 overs.
During his innings, Gayle, who reached his fifty in 33 balls, broke the record for the most sixes hit in World Cup history — he now has 40, three more than retired South Africa batsman A.B. de Villiers.
“It was a good game. I think the bowlers were outstanding today,” Holder said. “We kept our foot on the accelerator. We’ve eased off in the past, but it was good to see the killer instinct today.”
“We wanted to be aggressive. It’s the nature of our cricket with bat, ball and in the field,” he said, “We’ve definitely come to win this World Cup, but I just want us to enjoy our cricket, play fearless cricket and make the fans back home proud.”
The only positive for Pakistan was three wickets for paceman Mohammad Amir on his World Cup debut after he missed the 2011 and 2015 tournaments due to a spot-fixing ban in 2010.
Amir had Shai Hope (11), Darren Bravo (0) and Gayle caught in an incisive six-over spell, but the batsmen had not put enough runs on the board to give the bowlers a chance.
Pakistan’s sloppy and vulnerable batting was cruelly exposed by some short-pitched bowling on a Trent Bridge pitch famous for big totals.
Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam were the joint top scorers with 22 each in an abysmal display of batting.
The only other batsmen to reach double figures were Wahab Riaz, who scored 18, and Mohammad Hafeez (16).
However, it was not Pakistan’s lowest total at a World Cup, which remains the 74 they made against England at Adelaide on the way to their only World Cup title in 1992 — when they suffered a 10-wicket thrashing by the West Indies in their opening match.
Pakistan have now lost their past 11 completed one-day internationals, but will take heart from their International Cricket Council Champions Trophy win in England in 2017, when they recovered from a drubbing by India to win the final against their fierce rivals.
Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed said that two early wickets from Andre Russell, to dismiss Zaman and Haris Sohail, put them under pressure.
“We could never really put partnerships together and that was the reason why we were bowled out for 105,” Ahmed said.
“It was a bad day on the field,” he said.
“We knew they would bowl short-pitched balls and we had prepared for that, but on the pitch we couldn’t cope with that,” he added.
Holder said that Russell (left knee) and Gayle (long-standing back problem) would have their fitness monitored ahead of the West Indies’ next group game against Australia, also at Trent Bridge, on Thursday.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwanese martial artists bagged one gold, four silver and three bronze medals at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Brunei, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brunei Darussalam said yesterday. Liu Yu-tzu won the gold medal in the girl’s taijiquan A group and also picked up a silver medal in the girl’s taijijian A group. Hu Hsin-ling, Yu Min-hsun and Chen Chao-hsiang each won a silver medal in the girl’s jianshu B, boy’s nangun B and boy’s taijijian A groups respectively. Hu also won a bronze medal in the girl’s qiangshu B group, while Yu and Lin Shih-hung picked up bronze medals
RSS