Windies quantity no match for Pakistan's quality (May 17 1999)
All eyes were on the young paceman, Shoaib Ahktar as he started his run somewhere in neighbouring Somerset, even though the game was being played in Bristol, Gloucestershire, to bowl to "senior" West Indian opener, Sherwin Campbell
17-May-1999
May 17 1999
Windies quantity no match for Pakistan's quality
Colin Croft
All eyes were on the young paceman, Shoaib Ahktar as he started his run
somewhere in
neighbouring Somerset, even though the game was being played in Bristol,
Gloucestershire, to
bowl to "senior" West Indian opener, Sherwin Campbell. The run is fluid,
loose, organised,
rapid and powerful all in one. This is no normal long-jump like
acceleration of the normal
fast bowler. This run is more like those "Funny Cars" which do drag racing
in the USA; full
power and at top speed from the off.
There was a blur, and when the eyes focussed, the ball was actually flying
over the third-man
boundary for a six, Campbell being caught in "no-man's-land" in attempting
a hook from a
shortish delivery. The ball hit the bat before he could swivel and frankly
Campbell was as
late as ever in playing that half hook. Not long afterwards, Shoaib put
Campbell out of his
misery, having made 9, with the perfect off-cutter, at about 92 mph. The
off bail reached the
wicket-keeper, about 25 yards back. For an opener who is supposed to be
"behind" deliveries,
Campbell seemed strangely to be at the side of the ball.
There is nothing greater in cricket than looking at a fast bowler in full
flight. With his
pedigree; Shoaib Akhtar is an almost splitting image of Waqar Younis in
approach and delivery;
Shoaib could very well be the first bowler to pass the "official" 100
miles per hour mark.
While Jeff Thompson of Australia was timed at 101 miles per hour in 1978
when we did a bowl-off
for World Series Cricket, the equipment used then could not nearly be as
reliable as that used
these days.
One could only imagine what would happen to the world's batsmen if or
when, Shoaib Akhtar, the
presently injured Mohammed Zahid and non-selected Mohammed Akram, both
almost as rapid as
Shoaib, are placed in the same team as those old but very wily characters,
Wasim Akram and
Waqar Younis.
Oh, one last footnote here. These Pakistani pacemen are not large or tall,
as the West Indians
or Australians normally are. Instead, they are all rather stocky,
averaging about six feet
tall, but they have great thighs and backsides, therefore they can
generate power and speed.
They also "sling" their deliveries more, not too unlike Thompson, hence
the speed. It's a bit like
skimming rocks on a lake.
The game itself started strangely. Pakistan won the toss in murky
conditions and elected to
bat first, obviously determining to take on Brian Lara and his men. The
West Indies themselves opted for a strange team selection. They chose
eight batsmen, including Ridley Jacobs and only three front line bowlers.
That decision was to haunt them. Frankly, it was a really poor selection.
There is a saying in Guyana that "what rain cannot fill, then dew cannot
fill." When I played
Test and One Day Internationals, there was the widely held opinion that if
six batsmen cannot do the
job, then seven will not either. That was so true here. What is strange is
that the West
Indies team is being managed by Clive Lloyd, who always used to believe
that six
batsmen were enough. In a word, if you make 500 runs, who would get the
opposition out?
What happened to Hendy Brian, who bowled so well in the Caribbean, is
anyone's guess. Strange
selections indeed.
Pakistan had wilted, if that could be achieved in 5 degree Centigrade
weather, to 42-4, with
the brilliant Walsh and Ambrose bowling beautifully. Both Saeed Anwar,
perhaps the world's
best opening batsman, and that refreshing upstart, Shahid Afridi, had gone
quickly. Merve
Dillon, the third and final fully fledged bowler, took care of Abdul
Razzaq and Inzamam-ul-Haq.
Then the wheels fell off the West Indies' wagon. While Simmons held his
own with 40 runs
from his 10 overs, the 10 overs bowled by Adams, Arthurton and the
luckless Powell cost 83
runs. Allowing for the injury to Arthurton, this was very poor planning.
The same thing happened in the
second World Cup in 1979, when Geoff Boycott, Wayne Larkins and Graham
Gooch bowled 12 overs
between them in the then 60-over game. They too were walopped, by Viv
Richards and Collis
King, and England lost badly to the West Indies.
Ijaz Ahmed and Yousuf Youhana initially, then Azhar Mahmood and especially
Wasim Akram, took
advantage of the void in the West Indian attack. By the end, the
Pakistanis had managed 229
and at least had a fighting total. Then came that flash, Shoaib.
Jacobs and Adams tried to rally, while Shiv Chanderpaul worked hard to
gain some parity, but
none of the rest of the "batsmen" helped the cause. Lara cameoed two fours
before he fell,
while Powell, Simmonds and even the injured Arthurton laboured for single
figure scores. So
much for the seven batsman theory. It makes no sense. That the West Indies
lost by only 27
runs was somewhat misleading. It was not that close.
The West Indies played fairly good cricket, but the initial fault was that
the team selected
was very poor in balance, especially when Pakistan could call on
all-rounders Saqlain Mustaq,
Azhar Mahmood and Abdul Razzaq. Pakistan knew their strengths and played
to them. Indeed, I
would even venture that if the West Indies had another bowler selected,
the Pakistanis probably
would have fielded first, having won the toss.
For the following games, the West Indies will have to buckle down and play
very well indeed.
While their out-fielding was good and even the bowling, in the
circumstances, fair, the
batting was poor. 229 is not one of those totals which normally wins one
day games these days.
Australia and New Zealand are also in this Group B and they have also won
already. The West
Indies must beat either of these to qualify, assuming that they can beat
Bangladesh and
Scotland. Of course, we all know what "ass-u-me" means.