West Indies vs Pakistan: 1st ODI - 5 talking points of the match

1. Boom Boom Afridi

Boom boom Afridi!

Therewas a patch in Afridi’s career when the big sixes dried up, the wickets became infrequent, and the ‘boom-boom’ was reduced to a whimper, but what showmanship he still displayd!

The all-rounder took 7-wickets for a miserly 12 runs in his 9 overs (beat that Jason Holder) and perhaps more critically scored a match-winning knock of 76 runs yesterday. This was the third time that Afridi scored a half-century as well as took five-wickets in the same game, a feat no player has ever achieved more than once. Also, he became the only player in ODI history to have taken over 350 wickets alongside 7000 runs.

The statistics aside, it was a key performance for the player as he was making a comeback to the side after Pakistan’s Champions Trophy debacle. He talked about that aspect passionately in the post-match conference and said that it was no time, at this stage of his career, to ‘survive’ in the team; it was rather a time to contribute to the team’s success and that is exactly what he did.