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If performing awfully in the group matches is a pre-requisite for becoming the world champions for Pakistan, then they have followed the plan fantastically. In the inaugural match of ninth world cup on 13th March, 2007 — their dismissals, their fielding, their batting and overall approach to the game; everything was reeking of shallowness.

One of the most unprofessional bitter feature of Pakistan team is its un-ability to chase down the target. They have rarely been able to follow any decent or near-decent score soundly. From the outset, three bad things happened badly for them. First the inclusion of Rana Naveed, then election to bowl after winning the toss and thirdly Inzamam speaking “immaculately” in English in the front of whole world.

The dismal plight of Pakistani bowling is crystal clear from the fact that the bowlers who have always remained in the back benches due to missing sting in their bowling are now our strike bowlers. The opening match showed it all. Even the relatively weak West Indian team, despite of losing early wickets due to their own mistakes, managed to reach a target which bitten Pakistan in the head. Fielding from the Pakistani side was as embarrassing as anything could be. Catch dropped by the HBL man Younis Khan, Kaneria’s throws and legendry fumbles and the jiggery-pockery by the rest. Umer Gul and Rao Iftikhar showed some semblance of line and length on a competitive pitch.

After losing a perhaps good toss, Windies suffered an early blow when Chris Gayle continued his abysmal form and got caught by Kamran Akmal. This was his seventh less than 10 score in his last nine innings. He has only scored 122, at an average of 13.56. Shivnarine Chanderpaul crawled to 19 after facing 63 balls. He played one of his slowest innings and lived precariously for some time out there. His misery ended when he dismissed and Marlon Samuels, the star of this game appeared on the horizon with a new zeal and zest. His was a master blaster innings. He made a stunning 63 in no time and changed the complexion of the game permanently. Pakistan had had their hopes revived, when the skipper Brian Lara got ousted cheaply, but the world cup debutants Dwayne Smith hammered a vital 32 and Dwayne Bravo also contributed some valuable runs. The Pakistani bowling was bleating in the final overs and gave away 57 runs on the last 30 balls.

Pakistani batting started with a basher 6 from Imran Nazir and then his ignominious dismissal. Every thing about batting was wrong. The opening, the middle order, the late order and the rest. I mean, this is world cup, the greatest even of all time in cricket, so one should use some sort of brains. Younis Khan hooked again and sucked again. Hafeez after hitting some nicely-touched strokes managed to keep his average under 20 runs. When Smith dusted off Inzamam and Yousaf, the game was virtually over. Shoaib Malik did some batting practice as usual and that was it.

West Indies won by 54 run, the inaugural match of the world cup in a promising way.