Pakistan v/s West Indies - Quarter Final 1

This is one match between two unpredictable teams and I would be a fool to predict the outcome of this match. However, one thing can be said at this point of time. One of the two teams that wasn't expected to reach the semis at the start of the tournament would do so, as none of these two teams were considered to be strong enough. It is stroke of luck for the winner of this match to have been matched up against the other!

Let us look at the performances of these two teams in the World Cup in the league stage.

Pakistan

Versus	Result	Runs Scored	Wickets Lost	Runs Given	Wickets Taken
Kenya	Won	317	7	112	10
Sri Lanka	Won	277	7	266	9
Canada	Won	184	10	138	10
New Zealand	Lost	192	10	302	7
Zimbabwe	Won	164	3	151	7
Australia	Won	178	6	176	10
Total	W - 5 L - 1	1312	43	1145	53

Thus, Pakistan has given a very strong performance throughout the tournament, which is the very reason why they managed to top their group. However, their journey has been a funny ride, as you would expect from the unpredictable Pakistan side. They managed to stun Sri Lanka and halted the Australian juggernaut of wins and thus managed to defeat both the stronger teams of their group. However, they lost to the weakest of the top 4 in their group by a very huge margin and that must have been the eye opener for their bowlers. They also made quite a match out of the one against Canada for more than half the match, and the precision in butchering minnows was missing. However, that precision was on full display against Kenya and Zimbabwe. 

West Indies

Versus	Result	Runs Scored	Wickets Lost	Runs Given	Wickets Taken
South Africa	Lost	222	10	223	3
Netherlands	Won	310	8	115	10
Bangladesh	Won	59	1	58	10
Ireland	Won	275	10	231	10
England	Lost	225	10	243	10
India	Lost	268	10	188	10
Total	W -3 L - 3	1359	49	1058	53

West Indies have won against the minnows and Bangladesh and lost to all major test playing nations other wise. However, their performance hasn't been as bad as the result suggests. Out of the major teams that defeated them, West Indies had India and England on the mats for most of the time in the match, only to see their batting collapse. They suffered a clinical defeat from the hands of South Africa but that was early in the tournament. The wins that they have scored against the minnows in Bangladesh and Netherlands have been achieved after thorough precision. Ireland seemed to have troubled them to some extent, but then the Irish team created troubles for almost everybody.

Pakistan v/s West Indies

If you see the tables, both West Indies and Pakistan have managed to score in excess of 300 only once. Pakistan have recorded wins against big teams and hence their confidence would be better than West Indies. The tables show that West Indies have scored more runs than Pakistan and given away fewer runs. However, that might not be a fair comparison, considering that West Indies have managed to give away fewer runs in the total figure only because of their performance in the matches against minnows.

My money would be on Pakistan. West Indies might have bigger players in Gayle and Pollard, Pakistan are the team that plays with unpredictable precision in big matches. Umar Akmal is the man I would want to see performing big in this match, apart from Pollard and Afridi.

The match is being played at Mirpur tomorrow. Pakistan would be wary of West Indies and West Indies would be vary of stones. Stay tuned!