England's humiliation at the hands of New Zealand was almost matched by Pakistan's abject batting performance last night against the West Indies. At Christchurch, Andre Russell's final overs blitz with the bat ultimately proved irrelevant as most of the Pakistani XI capitulated to the Windies attack. Jerome Taylor and Jason Holder left the opposition reeling at 1-4 before Sohaib Maqsood and Umar Akmal steadied the ship. However, by that time, they had no chance of overhauling the 300+ target.
Skipper Misbah gave an honest appraisal that his side were well beaten, and it was an encouraging response from Holder's team following their embarrassing defeat against Ireland. It boosts their chances after all of qualifying for the quarter-finals.
Progressing from the group stage is still possible for England, despite being hammered by both hosts in their opening fixtures. Scotland, Afghanistan and Bangladesh should be easier opposition and even if they lose to Sri Lanka six points should be sufficient to go through. However, the sheer scale of their walloping at Wellington must have hit their confidence.
Tim Southee's masterclass in swing bowling put even Jimmy Anderson into the shade. His 7-33 was a Black Cap best and the third most impressive bowling performance in World Cup history. Joe Root, not for the first time, was the only England batman to demonstrate the right temperament to set any kind of challenge, but the wickets fell quickly at the other end. 122 all out in 33 overs was simply pathetic.
Their misery was compounded by Brendon McCullum's dazzling onslaught when he and Guptill came out to bat. The England pacemen had nowhere to hide and Steven Finn's generous helpings of off-stump deliveries were thankfully thumped for four consecutive sixes. Finn's two overs went for 49 and the NZ captain struck the third fastest ODI hundred. Had Chris Woakes not been introduced to dismiss both openers, nobody would have betted against McCullum beating AB De Villiers' recently set record as fastest ODI century.
As it was, the speed of the successful run chase (74 balls) was one of the swiftest ever, and probably the worst experienced by England in this form of cricket. It began and ended with wides and there was no hiding place for Eoin Morgan. At least as a batsman he had got off the mark for a change but 17 runs in 41 balls did little to restore his barely deserved reputation as a world-class 50-over exponent. He now has to steer a demoralised outfit against the lowly Scots to get off the mark as a World Cup captain. Mommsen, Coetzer et al must be licking their lips!
