Pak in WI: A tough competition is on the cards

Dr. Naveed Yazdani

Pakistan and West Indies will face each other for three ODI and two Test matches in the coming weeks. Pakistan is basking in the glory of victories against India while West Indies are struggling against the South Africans in Test matches. Nothing can be predicted with certainty but the recent performance of both the sides might establish a trend from where one can perhaps try to project the outcomes.

We will compare the two sides separately for Test and ODIs. For the sake of keeping the focus on recent form and validity, I have considered last 15 Tests and 10 ODIs played by both the sides. Let’s look at their performance under the two versions of the game separately.

Test Matches

Pakistan emerges as clear favorites in this version of the game. The last 15 Tests played by Pakistan are summarized in the Table 1. The same analysis for West Indies is given in Table 2.

Pakistan with an overall win percentage of 33% have performed much better than the West Indian (with a meager win% of 6.67), especially after considering the fact that the sole West Indian Test victory in recent times was against Bangladesh at home!

ODIs

Things are quite close and tighter when it comes to ODIs. West Indies seem to enjoy the benefit of winning a major tournament (ICC Champions Trophy) whereas Pakistan’s moral will be sky high after their 4-2 drubbing of the Indians in India. The performance of these two sides in their last 10 matches is summarized in Table 3:

Pakistan with a better win percentage and better NR/o (Net Runs per Over) has performed marginally better than the West Indians and one can expect a much closer ODI series as compared the Test matches. So watch out for the ODIs, in Tests Pakistan might prove too strong for the West Indies.

Table 1
Pakistan
At Home    Won Lost Drawn Win %
7          3   3    1     42.85
Overseas
8          2   4    2     25.00
Overall
15         5   7    3     33.33

Table 2
West Indies
At Home    Won Lost Drawn Win %
8          1   4    3     12.5
Overseas
7          0   6    1     -
Overall
15         1   10   4     6.67

Table 3
Pakistan
Mt  Won Lost NR  Win% R/o for  R/o against  NR/o
10  6   4    0   60   5.51     5.17         +0.34

West Indies                            
Mt  Won Lost NR  Win% R/o for  R/o against  NR/o
10  5   4    1   50   5.04     4.8          +0.24

Dr. Naveed Yazdani (annyazdani@hotmail.com) is a
freelance Cricket writer and analyst.

Most wickets in a bilateral ODI series

During the recently concluded ODI series against India, Pakistan’s Naved-ul-Hasan grabbed 15 wickets in six games, which is infact the joint third best performance by any bowler in a bilateral ODI series. India’s Javagal Srinath holds the world record in this regard with 17 wickets in seven matches against New Zealand in 2002-03 season. Just for record, Naved’s performance is also the best by any Pakistani bowler in any bilateral series surpassing the previous best of 11 wickets by Waqar Younis in 1990-91 against New Zealand in Pakistan. For reader’s interest the accompanying tables have the complete details.Click to see the table

Pakistan give India a resound bashing to take series 4-2

Great allround display by the Pakistan side in the sixth and final one-dayer today at Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, New Delhi earned them a fabulous series win by 4-2 scoreline. It provided only the first instance in the annals of Limited-overs cricket when a side won a six-match series after losing the first two games. In a five–match series there have also been two such instances - South Africa (3-2) against Pakistan in Pakistan in October 2003 and Bangladesh against Zimbabwe in Bangladesh (3-2) earlier this year.

Pakistan's Yousuf Youhana famous for his fascination with run-outs became a victim of a dubious decision by third-umpire, K Hariharan much to the delight of his country and his own. Now perhaps Pakistan will ask ICC for neutral third umpires! Later, Hariharan was joined by his on-field mate AV Jayaprakash who perhaps trusted his ears more than his eyes when he gave a miles a away missed delivery by Inzamam as a caught behind. Ironically, those two biased decisions were not much savoured by India. Youhana brilliantly executed two stunning run-outs of Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh as Pakistan bowlers joined by spirited fielders ran through the Indian batting line-up giving them a resound bashing by 159 runs.Click to see the series averages

Afridi fuses India

It was murder at Modi Stadium Kanpur. The executioner was Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi and sufferers were Indian bowlers and the Indian fans. Never has such a brutality on a cricket patch been witnessed in India and against India. The one innings which can be ranked alongside Afridi’s today’s blitz is Ijaz Ahmed’s unforgettable butchering of Indian bowlers on the night of October 2, 1997 at Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore. Ijaz made a mockery of opposition clubbing every other Indian bowler for sixes and fours in his stunning unconquered knock of 139 off 84 balls.

But Afridi’s savage assault today, remains to be seen to be believed. There were no mishits, edges or playing and missing. Simply it was controlled stroke making against a good bowling attack. And all the strokes were played with a straight bat clearing the fence by quite a distance. Almost 92 percent of Afridi’s 102 runs came in boundaries. His monstrous hit off Zaheer Khan (his sixth six) towards midwicket made him the first man on the planet to blow 200 hits over the boundary in ODIs. The manner in which he maltreated the Indian bowlers, he is liable to be reported to the Human Rights Commission for violating the rights of Balaji, Zaheer, Kumble, Mongia and Harbhajan. There was one chance for India to come back into this match after his mind-boggling smashing and that infact was no chance. Such an innings will perhaps remain etched forever in the memories of those who have witnessed. Well done Afridi!

Players with 100 or more sixes in ODI’s [10]
Six hitters     For    Mt    Inn    6s    6s/Inn
Shahid Afridi   Pak    204    195    203    1.04
ST Jayasuriya   SL     334    325    188    0.57
SC Ganguly      Ind    271    262    168    0.64
CL Cairns       NZ     204    184    147    0.79
SR Tendulkar    Ind    347    338    144    0.43
Inzamam-ul-Haq  Pak    341    317    133    0.42
IVA Richards    WI     187    167    126    0.75
Wasim Akram     Pak    356    280    121    0.43
BC Lara         WI     251    244    110    0.45
PA de Silva     SL     308    296    102    0.34

Fastest ODI innings

On April 15, during the fifth match of the six-match ODI series against India at Kanpur, Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi hammered a marvelous 102 off just 46 balls with a phenomenal strike rate of 221.73 runs (per 100 balls). It thus provided the 28th instance in the shorter version of the game, when a single batsman scored 50 or more runs with a strike rate of atleast 200 runs per 100 balls. It was also the fifth time that Afridi has done so in an ODI match. For reader’s interest the accompanying table has the complete details.Click to see the Table

A new high for Pakistan

Pakistan successfully chased India’s total of 315, in the fourth game of the six-match ODI series at Ahmedabad. It was actually Pakistan’s best successful run chase in all ODI’s and only the joint fifth best by any team in the shorter version of the game. It was also only for the 12th time that a side has successfully chased a total or 300 runs or more in a match. For reader’s interest the accompanying tables have the complete details. Click to see the Table

Inzamam gives the kiss of life!

On April 12, in the fourth match of the one-day series between India and Pakistan at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad, Inzamam-ul-Haq pierced a glorious boundary past point off the last ball of the day by Sachin Tendulkar, to register a sensational three wicket win for his side. Inzamam became only the 10th batsman for the 11th time to score a winning hit off the last ball of an ODI match. Lance Klusener still remains as the only batsman to perform such feat twice. Curiously enough, almost to the day 19 years ago (on April 18, 1986) Javed Miandad smashed Chetan Sharma a stunning six off the final ball of the match to take Pakistan to its first ever ODI title triumph. Ahmedabad game was also the 23rd instance of a side winning a one-day international off the last ball of the match. For reader’s interest the accompanying tables have the complete details.Click to see the Tables

Inzamam’s dubious distinction

On April 5, during the second match of the six-match ODI series against India at Visakhapatnam, Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq equalled a dubious world record of one-day cricket history. By getting himself run-out for the 38th time in his ODI career, the Pakistan captain equalled the tally of his former teammate Wasim Akram to become the poorest runner between the wickets in the shorter version of the game. Curiously enough, Inzamam has also ran his partners out no less than 30 times in ODI’s. This gives him a total of 68 run-outs, out of the 633 partnerships he had with different players in his 338 match career. Interestingly, Australian Steve Waugh and Sri Lankan Arjuna Ranatunga precede Inzamam in terms of most run-outs in partnerships. Another current Pakistani batsman Yousuf Youhana who has a uncanny knack of running himself or his partners out every now and then is already part of this dubious list with 56 total run-outs and counting! For reader’s interest the accompanying tables have the complete details.Click to see the Tables

Pakistan: washed away by Dhoni!

On April 5, during the second match of the six-match ODI series against Pakistan at Visakhapatnam, India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed a brilliant 148 off 123 balls to help his in posting a mammoth total of 356 runs in the allotted 50-overs. It thus provided the 32nd instance of a wicketkeeper scoring a century in an ODI innings. Interestingly, Dhoni became only the second Indian wicketkeeper, after Rahul Dravid, to post a one-day international century. He surpassed the previous best of 145 by Dravid as the highest score by an Indian keeper in the shorter version of the game. Dhoni’s blitzkrieg innings is also the second highest individual score by any wicketkeeper in all ODIs after Australia’s Adam Gilchrist’s 172. For the interest of the readers here under are the details.Click to see the Tables