World Cup 2019: Pakistan & West Indies to clash at Trent Bridge

Nottingham: Pakistan will face West Indies at Trent Bridge here for the second match of ICC World Cup 2019 on Friday.

What is being touted as the battle of the dark horses, both the teams have shown the capability to make bigger teams bite the dust and, sadly, also to crumble like a pack of cards. Both teams will fancy a shot at the four semi-final spots on offer, and a lot will be on the line in this clash.

Pakistan vs WI clashes in past

Pakistan and West Indies have met on the World Cup stage ten times, with the latter leading with 7-3. One-time World Cup winners Pakistan will be attempting in tilting the match dynamics to their side.

After Clive Lloyd’s enigmatic side won the first two World Cup titles in 1975 and 1979 and were stunned by India in 1983 final, the West Indies have struggled. They reached the semi-finals only in 1996. In the last two World Cups, they were eliminated in the quarter-finals.

Pakistan, on the other hand, last lifted the trophy under the leadership of Imran Khan in 1992. They were runners-up in 1999, and have reached the semi-finals on four other occasions. They got as far as the quarter-finals in 2015.

Batting Department

The West Indies boast of a strong batting line-up consisting of Andrew Russel, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Carlos Brathwaite and way down to the understated Jason Holder. The team could gallop right into the knock-out stages simply riding on their ruthless hard hitting formula.

Pakistan, on the other hand, have Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Sarfraz Ahmed who are more of composed batsmen and depend more on timing in comparison to plain strength.

Bowling Department

Coming to the bowling department, Pakistan’s looks worrisome. Their seamers Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir have not had any mentionable performance in the last 12 months. Another star performer Hasan Ali seems to be losing his shine. For the Carribean, Kemar Roach, Ashley Nurse, Sheldon Cottrell, Shannon Gabriel lead the bowling front and will be itching to showcase the team’s bowling might.

The match starts at 3 pm (IST) and at 09:30 AM (GMT) / 10:30 AM (local time).

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