West Indies:
SWOT Analysis:Looking at the performance of West Indies team in recent past, I would say west Indies is one of the inconsistent teams. Sometimes they perform emphaticcaly where as sometimes they perform simply dreadfully. Here is the SWOT analysis of the team.
STRENGTH: The strength of West Indies lies in the batting. West Indies boasts of some great players and awesome stroke makers. Chris Gayle is the brilliant stroke maker who can not only provide acceleration in powerplay, can also continue with long innings. Chanderpaul and Sarwan's consistency will be handy.
And Brian Lara is simply a genius. New players like Bravo can play some nice shots. Also the pacement like Bravo, Smith and Taylor can be very effective.
WEAKNESS: The weakness of West Indies team lies in the lack of experience in the low order. Once the top order is removed the lower order collpses immediately. The poor batting display against India in teh warmup match might be a concern. ALso, there is no high quality spinner in the West Indies team.
OPPORTUNITIES: The biggest advantage and opportunities for Windies are their home advantage. They are the host nation and know the best about their country. Also, the can provide surprise to any team.
THREATS: The threat for West Indies team might be their lack of motivation. Sometimes it seems that West Indian players are not motivated sufficiently. Also the poor batting display in recent series are a matter of concern. Also Sarwan is coming back to team from injury, that might be a bit of concern.
Stars to Watch out for: Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, RamNaresh Sharwan
Pakistan:
Pakistan is again a team full of surprises. They sometimes play like champions and sometimes play like just an orinary team. Here is teh SWOT analysis.
STRENGHTS: The strength of Pakistan team is the magnificent batting line up. With experienced and great players like Younis Khan, Mohammed Yousuf, Inzamam and with the fire power of Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi, they can beat any team on a given day. Also Shoaib Malik is great allrounder.
WEAKNESS: It is evident that Pakistan bowling line up looks little weak with the absense of Soaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif. So the pace bowling might not be as effective.
OPPORTUNITIES: The opportunities for Pakistan team is obviously to concentrate on their strong batting line up and play sensibly. With the amount of batting talents present in their team, they can be world beater.Also, they need to capitalize on Danish Kaneria inclusion.
THREATS: The main threats for Pakistan is not so experienced opening pairs. Mohammed Hafeez and Imran Nazir are good players, but they might not be very effective against good bowling attack. So the middle order may get exposed too soon in innings. Also, Shahid Afridi will not be playing in this match, that will be a concern for Pakistan.
Stars to Watch out for: Inzamam-Ul-Haq, Mohammed Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq
Predictions:
My prediction is that Pakistan will win the match. West Indies may give good fight though. But I expect pakistan batting line up to play with their potentia. Also even if Pakistan is devoied of teh services of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif, still their pace attack is pretty good with Sami, Rana-Naved, Rao Iftikar and Umar Gul.
Result:
The result was West Indies winning by 54 runs. West Indies started cautiously and the tail order batted bravely to put up a challenging total. Marlon Samuels batted nicely with good contributions from Sarwan, Smith, Lara etc. Then their pace attack bowled astoundingly to stop Pakistan batsmen chasing a not so mammoth total.
Match score card from cricinfo
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