West Indies have made a brilliant start to their World Cup 2019 campaign as they picked up a commanding seven-wicket win against Pakistan in their opening match at Trent Bridge on Friday
West bowlers had crushed Pakistan's batting line up for 105 runs in 21.4 overs before their batters reached 108-3 in just 13.5 overs.
Chris Gayle made a quickfire 50 off just 34 balls while Nicholas Pooran, who finished the match with a six, remained not out on 34 off 19 balls for Windies.
Earlier in the day, Oshane Thomas was the pick of the bowlers, taking four wickets for 27 runs while Andre Russell and skipper Jason Holder took two and three wickets each, respectively for the Caribbean side.
Speaking to the TV presenters after the end of the Pakistan innings, Thomas said, "New experience for me, this being my first World Cup. I was confident of running in and doing my job. Andre Russell started the job for us, I just followed his footsteps today. Lot of guys tried to mix it up with short balls. I mean, we wanted to execute our plans well.
Earlier, Pakistan left out experienced batsman Shoaib Malik, playing his last World Cup, and also hard-hitting batsman Asif Ali to go with two frontline spinners and three fast bowlers.
Seam bowler Kemar Roach was left out of the West Indies line-up.
"I don't think the conditions will change much," said West Indies captain Jason Holder. "Hopefully we can use the overhead conditions to get some early wickets. We've had a good camp and got a lot out of our warm-up games."
Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed said: "We wanted to bowl first because of the overcast conditions and a bit of moisture, but it will be a good batting pitch."
Teams:
Pakistan: Sarfaraz Ahmed (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Hafeez, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir.
West Indies: Jason Holder (captain), Chris Gayle, Shai Hope, Darren Bravo, Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Ashley Nurse, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas.
