New Zealand, and to a certain extent, Sri Lanka on Monday night showed just how difficult it is to play in a win-or-you-go-home game, especially when it is in a World Cup.
Where to Watch Live
The game is scheduled for a 7.30 pm local time (7 pm IST, 1.30 pm GMT, 9.30 am ET) start with live coverage on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 3 and Star Sports HD1 in India. The match can be watched via live streaming online in India HERE. The match can be live streamed in Pakistan HERE or HERE. The action in the US will be shown by ESPN with live streaming option HERE. Sky Sports 2 is the channel to watch in the UK, while you can also live stream the game HERE.
The match can be live streamed in Europe HERE, with the option for viewers in Canada HERE. New Zealand viewers can live stream the action HERE, while Sri Lanka viewers can do the same HERE. To watch the match in Middle East click HERE, South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa viewers can go HERE, while Latin America viewers can do the same HERE. Viewers in Australia can catch all the action live online HERE.
Act II of the do-or-die drama in the ICC World T20 2014 takes centre-stage on Tuesday, with Pakistan locking horns against defending champions West Indies - like yesterday, the winner moves into the semifinals, where they will face Sri Lanka, with the losing side taking that we-don't'-wanna-take-it flight home.
Pakistan and the West Indies have shown some tremendous skill as well as chinks in their armour, with both sides beating Australia and Bangladesh, while losing to India in Group 2.
West Indies are coming off a rollicking last-over victory against Australia, where the atmosphere was charged up during the game, and the switch was changed to a festive atmosphere in the end, with the Caribbean side celebrating in a manner in which only they can.
"That game was really heated," Dwayne Bravo said of the Australia encounter. "We really needed to win. We were better placed in the group than them, but the comments before the game played up a bit, but that happens on the field."
West Indies showed some tremendous fight in that game, coming from a precarious position, while chasing a huge total to pull a win from the hat courtesy some monster hitting from Bravo and particularly skipper Darren Sammy.
While the Australia attack was primarily based on pace, the West Indies will come up against a completely different bowling attack against Pakistan, where the emphasis will be on spin, with four quality slow bowlers in the lineup.
The likes of Sammy might not be able to use the pace of the deliveries to club it for sixes at will, but the skipper welcomed the challenge. "Whatever approach we come with, we definitely have to rotate the strike," Sammy said. "I think the game against India, where it was spin-oriented, probably 60 percent of the balls were dot balls, so it's something we've been working on and hopefully we can rotate the strike and get the boundaries in between, and play much better against spin than we've done in the past. It's going to be a very difficult game, but it's a step we're ready to take.
"We've prepared ourselves, and we knew coming down to our fourth game it would be Pakistan and we knew exactly what we have to do, and spin is something that we have to conquer in that game. With that said, we back ourselves, to put runs on the board and defend it, or if it's the other way around, restrict them to a low total and chase it down like we did against Australia, but hopefully it's not 170 we chase."
While Pakistan might be armed with quality spinners, West Indies can also say the same, with two of their bowlers - Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree - among the best in T20 cricket.
"Yes, they've got all their spinners, but we've got number one and two in our dressing room as well. They've got to plan to bowl to our batsmen and face our bowlers as well," Sammy added.
For Pakistan the challenge will be in their batting. If their batsmen can stand up, like Umar Akmal has done, and like Ahmed Shehzad showed in their previous game against Bangladesh, then they become a little more formidable.
The bowlers have the quality to restrict their opponents to a decent total or defend a relatively competitive total. So, the onus will be on the Pakistan batsmen to ensure they do not leave their bowlers with too much to do.
Pakistan have not chased a total down so far, batting first in all three of their previous Group 2 games, with the West Indies beating Australia chasing a total, while stopping Bangladesh after setting a target.
Therefore, it will be interesting to see how Pakistan react to the situation if they are indeed asked to chase down a target, rather than go with their strength of asking their bowlers to defend a total.
Expected lineups: Pakistan: Ahmed Shehzad, Kamran Akmal, Mohammed Hafeez (capt), Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Sohaib Maqsood, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Zulfiqar Babar.
West Indies: Dwayne Smith, Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy (capt), Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Samuel Badree, Krishmar Santokie.
