CRICKET: Russell leads rout of sloppy Pakistan

22 Feb, 2015 - 00:02 0 Views
CRICKET: Russell leads rout of sloppy Pakistan Andre Russell

The Sunday Mail

Andre Russell

Andre Russell

Two most frustrating teams of these times matched each other mistake for mistake until West Indies took the decisive advantage in the last 14 overs of their innings and the first four of the defence.

Having stumbled to 167 for 3 in 36 — with one batsman retired and possibly out of the tournament — they took 143 in the remaining overs thanks to urgency shown by Denesh Ramdin, Lendl Simmons and Andre Russell.

Ramdin and Simmons scored fifties at a little over run a ball, and Russell threatened the record for fastest ODI fifty with an unbeaten 42 off 13. The contest was killed pretty early in the second innings with the Pakistan batting disintegrating to 1 for 4, the worst four-wicket score in ODI history. The first 36 overs were a classic tussle between two middling sides refusing to drive home the advantage.

Pakistan dropped at least four catches, their field placements — seven-footer Mohammad Irfan at long-on during the slog — left a lot to be desired, their ground fielding was pedestrian, West Indies openers made no pretence of trying to guts it out during the opening exchanges, their set batsmen chose part-time spin of Haris Sohail to hole out to long-off to, and a general lack of urgency prevailed as their top order mostly played either-boundary-or-dot cricket.

West Indies began the match in a sea of trouble, having lost to Ireland, needing to win here to get some breathing space.

Once they were asked to bat in fresh morning conditions, it was a matter of when and not if the openers would fail.

Dwayne Smith was given some extra time through a drop by Nasir Jamshed, Chris Gayle wasn’t. At 28 for 2 Marlon Samuels decided he was going to hit boundaries or nothing at all.

Darren Bravo, although slow, provided the stability West Indies needed, and even Samuels settled into the stand. However, with the partnership reading 75 off 16.1 overs, Samuels picked out long-off with the first ball of the new spell of Haris. Samuels and Smith had shown great self-respect in refusing to live off the Pakistan fielders’ generosity, but the increments had been big enough to take West Indies close to the last 20 overs with wickets in hands.

Ramdin then played an innings that began to take the game away decisively. Ramdin disturbed the quiet of a ‘70s ODI — lethargic fielding, lack of urgency in the bat ting — with the first modern play of the match. — Cricinfo.

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds