Yousuf century lifts Pakistan to 292
The world cup opener started with Pakistan batting first on a dusty pitch. West Indies bowlers had made their intentions clear by bowling a bouncer first up and hitting Imran Nazir on the head. From there on in, the whole first inning was a big roller coaster ride.
As usual, Pakistan lost their openers, Nazir and Malik, early on to Fidel Edwards. Younis had an auspicious start to his inning, whereas Yousuf announced his arrival by hitting a six on the first ball he faced. He proceeded to score a 25 ball 50 as the big wickets of Younis, Inzamam and Afridi fell around him. It wasn't until Azhar Mahmood stepped in to bat that Yousuf finally had a stable partner to bat with. With Pakistan 106/5, these two put on a quick 77 run partnership that helped Pakistan get closer to the 200 mark, after which a 50 run partnership between wicket keeper Kamran Akmal and Yousuf lifted Pakistan to 237.
Pollard, who had troubled Yousuf with his medium pace from the get go, finally got the classy batsman out sweeping, but not before the bearded wonder had taken his own tally to 111.
A brutal few overs of extravagant shots saw Pakistan reduced to 259/9. This is where Sami and Gul put on a heroic 10th wicket partnership to take Pakistan's total close to 300 before a tumbling catch by Ramdin ended Pakistan's inning. Pakistan batted woefully, with major batsmen getting out to bad shots, but took the run tally to 292 a/o helped by Yousuf, some horrible fielding, and dodgy umpiring.
