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NOTTINGHAM: Opener Chris Gayle scored a decent half-century to lead West Indies to a comfortable 105 runs chase against Pakistan in the World Cup opener at the Trent bridge on Friday.
The Sarfraz men played only 21.4 overs of their batting innings as Jason Holder picked three wickets, Andre Russel took two and Sheldon Cottrell bagged one wicket. Mohammad Hafeez with 16 and Wahab Riaz (18) were the only other batsmen who reached double figures.
The score has been Pakistan’s all time second lowest score in the World Cup while the lowest is 74 against England in the famous 1992 World Cup. This is also Pakistan’s lowest total against West Indies in the World Cup. Previous was 160 back in 2015.
West Indies chased the score in 13.5 overs for the loss of three wickets.
The only silver lining for Pakistan in the match was that fast bowler Muhammad Aamir appeared to have found his long lost rhythm as he took three wickets off 26 runs.
West Indian fast bowler Oshane Thomas with his phenomenal 4-27 spell scripted a shambolic collapse of Pakistan.
Pakistan lost its top order in a brief span in their opening match at the Trent Bridge, Nottingham. All-rounder Andre Russell exposed Pakistan´s fragile batting with two wickets in the space of 12 balls to give West Indies an early advantage.
Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman were the highest run getter from the Pakistan side as they both scored 22.
Wahab Riaz and Muhammad Aamir offered little resistance in the last wicket partnership, however, the partnership was broken on 22 runs – interestingly it was the highest partnership of Pakistan in the match.
Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed expressed his hope that the team will bounce back after the loss today. “I think we have to play positive cricket, didn’t do well today but hopefully we’ll bounce back. We know they have pace bowlers who will come hard at us, but we didn’t play the short ball well.”