Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Sloppiest of the all?

Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Sloppiest of the all? 

Both the teams started the day with their own sets of problem after the defeat in their opening game. It seemed that both the teams thought the answer to the above question was their team. During the first innings, at least till the last 10 overs, it was not very clear if both the teams wanted the answer to be their team or the other team.

Both the teams made one change each. West Indies brought in the tall spinner Suleiman Benn in place of Kemar Roach whereas, Pakistan strengthened their batting bringing in the specialist opener in Nasir Jamshed instead of the leggie Yasir Shah.

Pakistan won the toss and with some moisture on the surface, expecting to exploit the conditions against the out of form Caribbean openers, chose to bowl first. Pakistan seamers started very well keeping both Smith and Gayle quiet. On the fifth ball of the fifth over, of Irfan's bolwing, Smith stepped out to pull a shortish ball from outside off, took the top edge and went to the third man where Nasir Jamshed dropped a not so difficult chance. Pakistan fielding beginning to show its colours. The very next ball, this time Gayle, went for the pull and ball took the top edge and flied to long leg, where Wahab took a well-judged catch. That brought Gayle's innings to an end. Two successive balls, a catch dropped and then a wicket falls. Who is the Sloppiest of the all? No clear choice yet. 

Soon in the 8th over Dwayne Smith also fell to a probing spell from Sohail Khan. West Indies were 28/2. Marlon Samuels together with Darren Bravo started building the much needed partnership. If Bravo provided the much needed solidity, Samuels provided the aggression. Both of them were progressing well with scoreboard reading 86/2 in the 20th over. On the last ball of 20th over, Samuels looked to pull a Wahab Riaz ball from outside off and it hit high on his bat and looped high in the air. It was Afridi's turn to show generosity, he dropped a simple catch. Samuels not in the mood to take any favour, stepped out on the first ball of Haris Sohail's new spell trying to hit over mid-on but endsed up giving a catch to Yasir Shah at long off. A good solid partnership adding 75 off 16.1 overs came to an end. Are you able to decide the answer to the question?

With score at 103/3 in 24.1 overs, Ramdin joined Bravo at the crease. Bravo after the diamond duck in the previous match looked solid. Ramdin too showed the resolve to stay at the crease and kept scoring at a brisk pace. On the last ball of the 29th over, Afridi dropped another catch, this time of Bravo off Haris Sohail. At 152/3, in the 32nd over, while completing his run, Bravo pulled his muscle and retired hurt. It was the second instance that a West Indian batsmen who had retired hurt, did not returned to bat, in a World Cup game. The only previous incident before Darren Bravo's was also against Pakistan, in 1992 in Melbourne, when Brian Lara went off for 88. What a coincidence!

Simmons joined Ramdin and immediately Ramdin called for powerplay in the 32nd over but could not make the best of it. Both added only 16 runs off the 5 overs. This was the lowest by any team in this world cup. Ramdin went on to score his 50 and in the processes added 42 runs with Simmons. Earlier he had added 49 with injured Bravo. In attempting to go for a big hit, at the end of the 40th over Ramdin got out. West Indies were 194/4.

With 10 overs remaining and 6 wickets in hand, West Indies looked moving towards a score of 270-280. But at this pitch anything less than 300 would be a below par score. Lendl Simmons continued his good form after the Ireland hundred and was scoring more than run a ball. At the beginning of 46th over, Irfan dropped Simmons off Wahab Riaz when West Indies were 236/4. Sammy too hit some lusty blows before getting out to Wahab Riaz in the 48th over, this time Afridi made no mistake and completed the catch. By this time Sammy and Simmons had added 65 runs of 44 balls. Pakistan seemed to have put the brakes at the right time. Can you guess the answer now?

Andre Russell joined Simmons with just 2.5 balls remaining and he produced a blinder of 42 off 13 balls. If not AB de Villier's record of fastest 50, McCullum's record was definitely under threat but unfortunately there were no more balls left in the innings. Wahab Riaz and Sohail Khan who shared the last 5 overs against India conceded just 27 runs then, but here they erred in the length terribly and apty punished by Russel, conceded 79 runs. Russel added 51 runs for 6th wicket and propelled the score to 310. With this West Indies became the first team to score 300+ in consecutive innings. West Indies made 115 since the 40th over, making it the fifth time in this tournament already that a team has scored more than 100 in the final ten overs.

With the target being 311, the second innings of the match was supposed to offer a mouth watering contest. West Indies who had scored 300+ score against Ireland never came close to defending it. Here the opposition had a better batting line up than that of Ireland, at least on paper. Similarly, in its first match against India, where Pakistan had to chase a 301 and they were never in chase. It was expected that we would get a real thriller.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Sloppiest of the all? 

After the completion of the first innings, it looked like West Indies started believing that they were not the answer to that question and Pakistan seemed to start believing that they were the answer to the question.

If not a thriller, a shocker was on the cards. Nasir Jamshed who had been brought in to the team as a specialist opener lasted only 2 balls and got out in the very first over pulling Jerome Taylor, hitting high. Russell completed a simple catch. The purpose of bringing in Nasir was to ensure that Younis plays one down and does not have to face the new ball. But here he was facing the new ball in the very first over. The very first ball that he faced was outside the off stump, he pushed it and nicked it to the wicket keeper. Pakistan 1/2.

Skipper Holder bowled a maiden to Ahmad Shehzad. Haris Sohail who showed a good temperament against India was the new man in. He was up against the wrecker Taylor. He negotiated the first 5 balls of his over very well. The sixth ball was short, angeling into his body, with no room to cut, he hit it straight to backward point. Pakistan now 1/3. All three batsmen out for duck. Jerome Taylor's spell read 2-1-1-3. In the very next ball, i.e. first ball of Jason Holder's second over, Ahmed Shehzad handed a catch to Simmons in the gully.

Pakistan were now 1/4 in 3.1 overs, the worst four-wicket score in ODI history. This is also the least runs scored by the top four batsmen ever in an ODI innings. Earlier in the same competition, Scotland were 12/4 in 4.2 overs against New Zealand. 

Misbah proved that he was also human and his team cannot take him for granted pushing him to bat always in precarious situations. After a 21 balls sedate innings, Misbah nicked a bowl from Russell in his first over to the slip, where Gayle took an excellent catch. Pakistan were 25/5 in 10.3 overs. 

Umar Akmal joined Shoaib Maqsood  and tried to make amends to the severe damage done so far. Both tried to stitch a partnership and were cruising. Their partnership was not really threatening but it was delaying the inevitable. Even West Indies contributed to the delay. Darren Sammy and Chris Gayle dropped Maqsood and Akmal respectively during this phase. Meanwhile, Maqsood reached his 50 in 64 balls in the 25th over. Just when Pakistan were sighing relief, Maqsood miscued a Darren Sammy full toss and lobbed it up over the bowler's head, very similar to what Morgan did the other day on Vettori ball. Similar to Milne the other day, Benn ran around from mid-on and dived full length to take an excellent catch. Pakistan were 105/6 in 25.3 overs. Both of them had added 80 runs for the 6th wicket. 

Umar Akmal completed his 50 off 57 balls before getting out for 59 runs in the 32nd over. It was then just a mere formality for West Indies. Pakistan innings folded in 39 overs with the scoreboard reading 160/10. West Indies had won by a whopping 150 runs which is their largest in an ODI against Pakistan. The previous best was 133, in Sydney in 1992, not in the world cup.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Sloppiest of the all?

Whenever this question is asked to the magic mirror, it seems that the Pakistan team wanted the answer to be "Pakistan". Their performance today was testimony to that. There is another team in the competition that could challenge Pakistan - England. Both of them are now at the bottom of their pool. Only time will tell what answer the Magic Mirror has.