Yorked!!! – By Chetan Narula.

West Indies draw First Blood.

Brian Lara calls it overcoming stage fright or calming the big match nerves. Call it whatever you may, it is a fact that the hosts have gotten off to the best possible start in the tournament, more so after the practice match disaster against India. Ladies and gentlemen, the world cup is alive and kicking.

It was the most important match of their group, given that the rest of the two teams, Ireland and Zimbabawe are minnows and they are not expected to make the cut for the super 8. So the opening day of the world cup carnival saw a battle for the precious points which will be carried over to the next round. Inzamam called the toss correctly and chose to field. And this is when things started to go wrong for the Pakistanis.

Pakistan have to know their strengths and weaknesses. Their bowling is weak, they simply have to accept that. So batting first might not have been a bad idea. See out the new ball carefully, and then allow the likes of Youhana and Inzy to take charge. Plus the team selection wasn’t upto the mark either. With the likes of Lara, Samuels and Bravo in the side, how could they even think of playing Kaneria, a leg spinner? Especially when, some one as experienced as Azhar Mahmood was cooling his heels in the pavilion.

But Pakistan is, well, Pakistan. They don’t believe in anything anybody says. Just do what they do. And so began Umar Gul with his good line and length and Rana Hasan with a mix of quick and slow deliveries. Gayle’s innings ended rather quickly and brought out Sarwan, who himself looked like he wanted to go back quickly. He managed to survive a dropped chance on his first ball, then played some horrendous shots and luckily managed to stabilize the innings with Chanderpaul. The latter was quite slow off the blocks and maintained that turtle pace throughout his innings, scoring 19 of 63 balls. Once Sarwan was snapped up for 49, Younis Khan latching on this time, it was all still to be done for the Windies.

In walked Lara and Samuels, their 91 run partnership taking the Windies to a platform to launch the final assault. But just as they were beginning to cut lose, Lara edged it and Samuels skied one. The last heroic of the day were still left to come and thanks to Dwayne Smith, they managed to reach a comfortable 241. A 15 ball 32 runs innings well supported by the lower order.

Smith’s heroics didn’t stop there. Pakistan were too dependent on their top order to fire. But that didn’t materialize. The West Indian opening bowlers, Powell, Colleymore and Taylor set them up with some tight stuff, bowling a nagging line and length. And when Smith and Bravo mixed it up cleverly with their military medium stuff, Pakistan just had no answers. He scalped Youhana, Inzamam and Kamran Akmal, three important cogs of their middle order wheel. Quite clearly, a man-of-the-match performance from the youngster.

In a match where all of Lara’s prayers were answered, his call to the youngsters of the team to stand up and deliver answered, Inzamam discovered that he still has plenty on his plate. The only bright spark of the match for them was the way Umar Gul shouldered the responsibility of leading the attack, the tight line bowled by Iftikhar Anjum in the middle overs and the defiant innings played by Shoaib Malik. They need some answers quick. With Afridi still out for the match against Ireland, they could try out Shoaib at the top, to stabilize things, which will also allow them to play Azhar Mahmood. The all rounder needs to warm up since it is more or less guaranteed that his services will be called for in the super 8. And by all means, they have to shed their unpredictability, and win against the minnows of their group. An upset there would not even allow them to return home.

The West Indies too can’t rest on their laurels from this game. Much is still to be done. They should try out some other combinations in the coming matches and have options in hand for the sterner tests ahead.

The calypso carnival has begun and it could not have had a better start.