Pakistan and West Indies -- two mercurial, don't-know-what-you're-going-to-get-from-them teams coming off scathing opening defeats will look to get their ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 campaigns back on track when they face off in Christchurch on Saturday.
While Pakistan's loss to their biggest rivals India will be a hard one to get over, West Indies were much worse, going down to Ireland, and that too with hardly a glimmer of a fight.
Jason holder is clearly way in over his head here, and dropping the likes of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard has not helped matters either. Losing Sunil Narine was the final blow for West Indies, and it really looks like a tall order for them, to not just get the better of Pakistan, but find their groove in time to make it into the quarterfinals.
A win over Pakistan, though, might just be the fillip needed to achieve that minimum feat.
"We both [West Indies and Pakistan] haven't been playing up to our potential and we've lost a few players," said West Indies skipper Holder. "It should be a very entertaining game. I guess whoever executes their plans better on the day will come out on top.
"[Narine] has done tremendously well for us over the years. For him to miss any team is a big loss. We've just got to move on from that.
"We have capable players in the likes of Sulieman Benn and Nikita Miller, who are two quality spinners for us as well. It's all about them getting their opportunity and performing for us."
While West Indies are in disarray, it is not too different for Pakistan either, with dissent reportedly spreading across the team. The fielding coach Grant Luden apparently threatened to quit after claiming to be disrespected by some of the Pakistan players, and it is a problem that coach Waqar Younis and skipper Misbah-ul-Haq could have done without.
Even without the off-field turmoil, Pakistan have problems aplenty, chief of them being their batting. The brittleness of their lineup was highlighted in the match against India, with only Misbah, yet again, really standing up to the pressure-cooker test.
"There's no real panic with the batting," said Misbah, despite recent form suggesting otherwise. "Ahmed Shehzad did well in the last game, Umar Akmal and Haris Sohail have been doing well of late.
"It's unfortunate that they had one bad game [against India], Haris got bogged down and then got out..
"There's no reason to panic. That said, we do have to capitalise on our batting starts and hope that five of six batsmen get into form and get bat on ball so we can get big scores. We've discussed this in meetings, the importance of converting starts.
"If you look at execution, it's also pretty fine. Two games ago, Sohaib Maqsood finished a great match. He was practicing hard, was in good nick, got 93.
"Umar Akmal did well against England, he executed his plans and finished them. It's just one game against India that he failed. It was unfortunate that these two batsmen missed out there."
West Indies have the better batting lineup in paper, and Pakistan the bowling, and at the end of the day, the winner will probably be decided on which of the weaker lineups of the two sides step up better.
Where to Watch Live
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The game is scheduled to begin at 11 am local time (3.30 am IST, 10 pm GMT, 5 pm ET) with live coverage provided for viewers in India on Star Sports 2, Star Sports 4, Star Sports HD2 and Star Sports HD4. Starsports.com and Star Sports live pro will give viewers in India the option to watch the match via live streaming online.
Viewers in Pakistan can catch their team take on the West Indies live on PTV or Ten Sports, with the option to live stream on PTV Live and Ten Sports Live. Audience in the US can watch the game live on ESPN or Watch ESPN.
The match will be shown live in the UK on Sky Sports or Sky Go and Watch Sky Sports, while Australia viewers can catch the game online on Channel 9 and Fox Sports. The match can also be live streamed in Australia on Cricket Australia Live, Cricket Australia Live App or Foxtel. Catch the game live in New Zealand on Sky Sport or Sky Go NZ.
Viewers in the Middle East and North Africa can catch the action on OSN and OSN Play, while viewers in Europe can watch the game live on Eurosport or Eurosport Player.
