<
        >

          Prankistan on All Fools' Day

          • Nitin SundarApr 1, 2014, 05:16 PM
            Close
              Social media manager Nitin spent his formative years perfecting the art of landing the googly, before blossoming into a book-cricket specialist. More excellence followed in the underarm version of the game before, like the majority of India's misguided youth, he started taking studies seriously. After four forgettable years of electrical engineering, followed by a rigorous MBA and 16 months in the strategy consulting industry, he began to ponder life's more profound issues. Such as the angle made by Brian Lara's bat with the horizontal at the peak of his back-lift. A move to ESPNcricinfo followed and Nitin is now a prolific nurdler in office cricket, with a questionable technique against the short ball.

          Big day. Big game. What's West Indies' strategy?

          That was lame. But what followed in the post-toss chat with the captains was worse.

          Both teams were unchanged, which confounded some Pakistan fans.

          Pakistan got off to a superb start. Chris Gayle perished to his bugbear Mohammad Hafeez early.

          And then Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul produced a moment of comical magic on the field.

          Meanwhile, Wasim Akram was taking some very pertinent questions from fans on Twitter.

          West Indies' recovery was slow in the face of some quality spin bowling.

          Lendl Simmons lay the early groundwork before being run out following a huge LBW appeal. West Indies held back their big hitters.

          Spoke too soon.

          Just when it looked like West Indies would subside to a sub-par score, Dwayne Bravo exploded with an array of huge sixes. Saeed Ajmal bore the brunt. His first two overs had gone for six runs. The next two leaked 35.

          All sorts of crazy events happened in the end over. Dwayne Bravo's blitz ended when he was run out, but Darren Sammy carried on the good work.

          Pakistan were clearly stunned by the onslaught. They chased as if in a trance and quickly fell out of contention. Ahmed Shehzad and Kamran Akmal bagged ducks, while Mohammad Hafeez struggled to put bat on ball. Samuel Badree bowled a dream opening spell.

          Why was it all going pear-shaped for Pakistan?

          That explains it. Things didn't get better for a very, very long time.

          Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik pottered along for an agonizingly long time, with Afridi chafing at the bit in the dug-out.

          Things kept getting worse for Pakistan, as did Afridi's outlook.

          ---twitter---
          Finally Afridi came out to bat.

          ---twitter------twitter------twitter---
          Alas, Afridi failed too.

          ---twitter------twitter------twitter---
          Pakistan's situation was so dire, even Indian fans were commiserating.

          ---twitter---
          Not all of them, mind.

          Pakistan eventually folded for 82 - which was exactly what West Indies made in the last 5 overs.

          ---twitter------twitter---