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West Indies v Pakistan 1st T20 Live Match – 27th July 2013

World Twenty20 champions and two positions stronger than Pakistan in the ICC rankings, the West Indies have a chance to redeem their ODI poverty in a format that has seldom disappointed recently. June’s entirety and July’s bulk were not good to the Windies, with a premature Champions Trophy exit, twin defeats in the tri-series with Sri Lanka and India and a trio of losses in the bilateral series reasonably damaging. The shortest version of the international game, however, will again benefit a unit primed for brief, effective bursts – rather than prolonged passages of determination and concentration. Cricket betting, indeed, has never been more balanced.

Pakistan meanwhile, have to fit into Mohammad Hafeez’s regime. Relatively new to the T20I captaincy, Hafeez has big boots to fill in the absence of Misbah-ul-Haq, who is a commanding, authoritative presence in the ODI outfit. The visitors are no pushovers in T20 either – having won the World Cup once and narrowly losing to India in the final of the first edition. In Afridi and company, they have an extremely destructive group of batsmen who can take the game away in a jiffy. Their bowlers have always been good and Saeed Ajmal leads an attack that knows how exactly to bowl in this format. The conditions should keep this game evenly balanced. The wicket usually has something in it for the bowlers and gives the batsmen freedom to play their shots.

Seriously, any T20 side with Gayle is clearly the favorite at any time, considering that this hitter is fast using his unqiue skills to carve his name as the best T20 player of all time. And then if Gayle fails, they have Samuels, Charles, Bravo, Pollard and many others who can take on the opposition. And then they have Best and Narine alongside ODI skipper Bravo leading a really good bowling attack. With riches aplently and more so with these players honing their skills in the most competitive domestic format of this game at the IPL, the Carribean side is a force to reckon with. Their quality was clearly demonstrated in their ICC World T20 win last year and the fact that they are entering this series on a 5 match winning streak. So going against a West Indies side, which in the shortest format of the game, resembles the glorious West Indies sides of 70s and 80s, is there any hope for Pakistan?

Match Timings: July 27, 2013 (14:00 local | 18:00 GMT | 23:30 IST)

West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Johnson Charles (wk), 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Lendl Simmons, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Darren Sammy (capt), 9 Sunil Narine, 10 Tino Best, 11 Shannon Gabriel/Samuel Badree.

Pakistan (probable) 1 Nasir Jamshed, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad Hafeez (capt), 4 Umar Akmal (wk), 5 Haris Sohail/ Hammad Azam, 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 Sohail Tanvir, 8 Saeed Ajmal, 9 Junaid Khan, 10 Wahab Riaz, 11 Mohammad Irfan.

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