Pakistan vs West Indies:Ist QF Preview

After the loss against India,West Indies finished group B as 4th and it will play Pakistan in the 1st quarter final at Dhaka.Pakistan looks a better team in cards,basically with a strong middle order and having rich experience in bowling.Toss will be an important factor as the Mirpur wicket assists spin and it is difficult to bat on in the 2nd innings.West Indies has played in this venue vs Bangladesh.

                          Pakistan performed superbly in the world cup beating two strong teams Srilanka and Australia.Pakistan suffered an accidental defeat against New Zealand.Opening is a big worry for them.Hafeez and Sehjaad has not given a good start yet.Now Akmal is opening with Hafeez.Asad Shafiq is in his best form at no 3 position.Yunis Khan and Misbah are consistent  through out the world cup.Pakistan has good strikers as Afridi and and Razzaq to accelerate the innings.Pakistani  batsmans have to score big to give chance to their  bowlers.

                          on the other hand the West Indies has suffered defeats from South Africa,India and England.The defeat against England was unexpected as the Windies lost from a winning position.Against India they rested Gayle.Daren Smith played a fine knock of 71  but the other batsmans were trapped against Indian spinners.Chris Gayle is a dengerous customer and can change the course of the game with in some overs.Sarwan is not perfoming as his merit.Experienced Chandarpaul is not playing.Now its the time to give him a chance for solidity in batting. Pollard has not shown his calibre completely,but if he stikes then he will even more destructive than Gayle.Skipper Sammy and Andrew Russail played some quick knocks.It will be the key that how they will play against the Pakistani bowlers.

  In bowling Pakistan are most experienced  side than the Windies.Bowling is the strength of Pakistan comprising Umar Gul,Shahid Afridi,Abdul Rehman and Saeed Ajmal.Shoib Akthar is not at his best form and might be miss the quarter final contest. Afridi is bowling superbly and he is the highest wicket taker of the world cup.Umar Gul is leading the pace bowling department and is devastating with his reverse swing.Saeed Ajmal is not given a chance but he is an attacking bowler.Abdul Rehman is the prefered choice for Afridi and he bowled economically.Razzaq is another bowler can be used as a seamer.Pakistan will try to struct the Indies batsmans with its spinners.West Indies bowling lacks experience.Besides this Kemar Roach,sammy and Russail are bowling well.They have the experience of playing in Mirpur against Bangladesh.If they will get conditions like that day the pace trio could derail the Pakistani batting.Left arm spinner Benn is another bowler who will try to restrict the PAK stroke players.Bishu is a good leg spinner but bowling to sub continent batsmans is always an uphill task.

                       Pakistan is the favorite of this match.