A REJUVENATED West Indies entered this summer’s World Cup as a balanced unit, who are not favourites, but yesterday’s performances against Pakistan definitely signalled that they will be no pushovers either, during this mega event.

The West Indies, led by Jason Holder, gave a good account of themselves. The bunch of maroon-clad underdogs had definitely displayed a united fighting force, anxious and able to show the world they are not to be written off or even taken lightly.

They whipped the Pakistanis by seven wickets in a one-sided World Cup match at Trent Bridge, with the two-time champions showing they are a resurgent force in the one-day game.

The win was set up by the West Indies pacers, in which Oshane Thomas took four wickets, as Pakistan were bundled out for their second-lowest World Cup total of 105 in just 21.4 overs.

West Indies cruised to victory in just 13.4 overs, Chris Gayle top-scoring with 50. He reached his half-century off 33 balls with three sixes and six fours.

During his innings Gayle, who calls himself the ‘Universe Boss’, broke the record for the most sixes hit in World Cup history.

He now has 40 maximums, three more than retired South African batsman AB de Villiers.

Nicolas Pooran smashed paceman Wahab Riaz for a huge six over the square-leg boundary, to give the 1975 and 1979 world champions an ideal start to their campaign – a start which challenges the ‘underdogs’ tag prior to the start of the tournament.

Meanwhile, three local and regional cricket commentators share their respective thoughts with Chronicle Sport pertaining to the Windies performance.

Brig Parasnath, who is a Trinidad-based Guyanese cricket writer, commentator/analyst, said: “The West Indies fast bowlers exploited the conditions well. The bowlers extracted considerable bounce that startled the Pakistan batsmen whose injudicious stroke play brought about their downfall and allowed the West Indies team to celebrate a wonderful morale-booster.”

He went on to say, “The experienced Chris Gayle showed his world class ability with an attractive 50 while talented Nicholas Pooran exhibited excellent form. Those are encouraging signs and it will help to boost the West Indies overall confidence for the upcoming matches.”

Local commentator Matthew Kissoon feels the Windies had done their homework against the Pakistanis.

“To bowl short-pitched deliveries against the Pakistanis I feel they had done their homework on them (Pakistan). So while the victory was somewhat surprising, I believe that the West Indies would perform well in this tournament … as long as they can get all the components flowing good together they will perform well.

“They got very good quality professional cricketers in the side, and they should be able with their experience to perform beyond expectations. I don’t consider them as a dark-horse team because I don’t look at ranking, I look at performance at the given day, and because English conditions are totally different, I think they will adapt to the conditions, and also flow with the team plan well,” Kissoon pointed out.

Inderjeet Persaud made mention of the ruthless display by the Windies fast bowlers, adding that Pakistan’s batting unit repeatedly struggled against short deliveries, of which the Caribbean side fast bowlers took full advantage.