West Indies bowlers produced a ruthless display to dismiss Pakistan for a mere 105 in their World Cup opener.
There is nothing that unites Pakistanis like cricket and on Friday, as Pakistan played its World Cup opener against West Indies, the country’s Twitterati were united in feeling the sting from the team’s batting collapse.
Pakistan were skittled out for 105 in 21.4 overs in the second match of the Cricket World Cup at Trent Bridge. The batting order capitulated from 75-4 and lost its last six wickets in 5.3 overs, leaving many Pakistanis to ask: “Why?”
Read: West Indies pulverise Pakistan by seven wickets at Trent Bridge
Journalist Zahid Hussain called it a “disastrous start of Pakistan cricket team in the World Cup”.
“Clearly no one told Pakistan that the warm up matches are over,” remarked Al Jazeera correspondent Asad Hashim.
Pakistani cricket commentator and former cricketer Shoaib Akhtar did not have words to comment on the batting.
Cricket statistician Mazher Arshad put the numbers into perspective, saying: “This is Pakistan’s shortest innings in the World Cup history and second lowest total after 74 vs England in Adelaide in 1992.”
Writer Ahmer Naqvi asked people to “retweet if your team’s total is less than your currency’s exchange rate to the dollar”.
Entertainer Fakhr-e-Alam posted a poll, inquiring as to what the reason for the poor performance could be: “Short pitch bowling, mental block, World Cup pressure, Roza lag raha thaa?”
Human rights activist Kapil Dev in reference to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s advice to the team said: “Imran Khan asked the team to give their 100% and they gave 105.”
However, there were a few who still saw some sort of a silver lining: “Just a friendly reminder to all the naysayers that we lost our first match of the 1992 World Cup to the West Indies by 10 wickets.”
Source: dawn.com