Form book no guide in crunch contest

The Big Picture
The last time West Indies were in Dhaka, they couldn't have been in more of a rush to get away - in every sense. First there was their on-field performance, as clinical as anything ever witnessed in a World Cup encounter, as a potentially awkward tussle with Bangladesh was done and dusted in barely 30 overs of one-sided action.
Then, however, came the darker aspect of the day's events. As the West Indies team bus pulled out of the Shere Bangla stadium, it was pelted with rocks by an irate section of the Bangladeshi support - in the mistaken belief, it was later reported, that their own defeated countrymen were on board. Chris Gayle's alarmed tweet buzzed around the world in minutes, and though the team was later garlanded with flowers by an apologetic supporters' group, the lack of amusement was tangible. "Is it ok for me to say thank god I left bangladesh???!!!" added Sulieman Benn once the team had departed for India.

But now they are back, amid drum-tight security, and while the venue may not be to their liking, the opportunity could hardly be more alluring. Of all the teams in a tricky Group B, arguably no-one had a smoother on-field run to the quarter-finals than West Indies. Unlike England, whose struggles against the lesser teams turned every one of their subsequent games into nailbiters, the Windies took the polar opposite approach. They won the games in which they were favourites with such ease - with only the Irish coming close to giving them a scare in a 44-run defeat - that back-to-back defeats against England and India couldn't rattle their rock-solid Net Run Rate.

As a consequence they may start as underdogs in the knock-outs, but West Indies have landed the opponents that most suit their hot-and-cold style. Pakistan surpassed expectations to finish top of Group A, and in doing so they bookended the single most remarkable statistic in World Cup history - Australia's 34-match unbeaten run that began in the wake of a Moin Khan-inspired 10-run defeat at Headingley in 1999, and came to an end at the hands of Umar Akmal in Colombo on Saturday. But as their remarkable defeat against the apparent weaklings of New Zealand demonstrated, there's never any point in predicting predictability from Pakistan.

The other three quarter-finals involve clear favourites, and it would be a shock if any of India, South Africa and Sri Lanka failed to advance to the semis. This one, however, is anyone's game. On form, Pakistan should shade it, and a potential semi-final date with India in Mohali will ensure their resolve is at its sharpest. But as West Indies showed on their last trip to Mirpur, when they get on a roll they have players who can prove unstoppable.

Form guide
(completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan WWLWW
West Indies LLWWW

Watch out for...
In their Chennai defeat against England, West Indies threw punch after punch to leave their opponents weak at the knees, but they lacked the subtlety in between whiles to make their position count. Nevertheless, the star of their show was undoubtedly the 22-year-old Andre Russell, whose performance with bat and ball could and should have been the decisive factor. His energetic seamers claimed career-best figures of 4 for 49, and he followed that up with a rough-diamond 49 from 46 balls. In a contest that could be decided by individual brilliance, he has two strings with which to make his bow.

Pakistan have long cultivated a reputation as mercurial performers, but scarcely a match goes by these days without a command performance from Umar Gul. He's picked off 13 wickets in his six outings in this World Cup, including nine in the past three games, in which time he has been promoted to new-ball status as well. His effortless variations provide a threat at any stage of an innings, but never more so than at the death when his pinpoint yorkers can prove unhittable. With Chris Gayle at the top of West Indies' order, and Kieron Pollard lurking at the bottom, his ten overs could prove instrumental in deciding the course of the match.

Team news

Chris Gayle and Kemar Roach are expected to slot straight back into the team after missing the India fixture, in place of Kirk Edwards and Ravi Rampaul, who will count himself unlucky to miss out after picking up figures of 5 for 51 in that match. There could also be a recall for the veteran Shiv Chanderpaul, who was dropped after a tally of 70 runs in four matches at the start of the tournament, but whose experience in such a crunch fixture could be invaluable. Ramnaresh Sarwan is the likeliest man to miss out, although Devon Thomas could conceivably hand the keeping duties to Darren Bravo.

West Indies (possible) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Devon Smith, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Darren Sammy (capt.), 7 Devon Thomas (wk), 8 Andre Russell, 9 Sulieman Benn, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Devendra Bishoo.

Chanderpaul's return would mean four left-handers in West Indies' top five, and so the offspin of Saeed Ajmal is being seriously considered in place of the effective but unassuming left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman. Shoaib Akhtar, with his retirement imminent, will hope to earn a recall in place of Wahab Riaz, who was expensive against Australia, but the variation offered by his left-arm line is not an asset that Shahid Afridi would wish to dispense with in a hurry.

Pakistan (possible) 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Asad Shafiq, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Saeed Ajmal, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Wahab Riaz.

Pitch and conditions
Darren Sammy reckons the Dhaka wicket looks like "a cricket pitch", which is just as well really. Still, Bangladesh managed to make it look like a minefield on West Indies' last visit to the venue, as Sammy, Roach and Benn routed their opponents for 58 in 18.5 overs. There is some grass on the surface, but it ought to be full of runs, as Virender Sehwag demonstrated during his 175 in the opening match of the tournament. The weather is set to be humid, with some prospect of dew in the second innings.
Stats and trivia
West Indies have won 64 of their 114 ODIs against Pakistan, but just two of the past 13 completed matches, dating back to January 2005.
Shahid Afridi's highest score in four World Cup campaigns is 37 against Zimbabwe in June 1999. However, he has claimed 17 of his 24 wickets in the current tournament.
West Indies are bidding to reach their fourth World Cup semi-final, and their first since 1996. Pakistan reached the semis in five of the first seven tournaments, but haven't got that far since losing the final in 1999.
For a full statistical preview, click here
Quotes
"This is a ground where we executed our plans perfectly so it's good to be back here. We feel loved by the people and we are ready for tomorrow."
Darren Sammy dispels the notion that the stone-throwing incident has affected West Indies' attitude to Bangladesh

"It was a great win. We really worked hard before this tournament and I don't think in my 14-year career we've ever worked as hard. Definitely, the expectation is greater now. We are feeling more confident."
Shahid Afridi reflects on the achievement of beating Australia in Colombo.

Johnson to target Sehwag with short deliveryJohnson to target Sehwag with short delivery

As that great innovative thinker Homer Simpson once said when faced with a difficult problem, "I've been working on a plan: I'll hide under some coats and hope that somehow everything will work out". That's pretty much how a fast bowler must feel when Virender Sehwag is in his stride. But no pile of coats could offer that level of escapism, nor shield a man from the roars of an Indian home crowd.

Fast bowlers will tell you they don't get frightened. The biggest, meanest men in the side, it is their job to inflict pain, not suffer it. But Sehwag can send the world's toughest and quickest into the foetal position, as he almost did to Morne Morkel in Nagpur last week. It's something of a paradox, therefore, that the man who has handled Sehwag as well as anyone in recent years is Mitchell Johnson.

Johnson is quick and awkward, but can be more fragile than your average fast bowler - belt him a few times and you can almost sense him searching for a suitable stack of coats to crawl under. But somehow, his style has worked against Sehwag. Perhaps it's Johnson's unpredictability that has been the undoing of Sehwag; a couple of loose balls might be dispatched, but followed by another attempted boundary from one that is too close to cut, or so accurate that it should be respected.

Whatever the case, in the past five years, no bowler has dismissed Sehwag more often across all formats than Johnson, who has claimed his wicket nine times from 18 games. That's a trend Johnson wants to continue in Ahmedabad on Thursday, and he believes the best way to attack Sehwag is to bowl at his body.

"I don't mind bowling up into his rib-cage to be honest," Johnson said. "He seems to struggle with that a bit. I guess [also] putting pressure on him, if he gets a single it puts pressure on the batsman at the other end. That's one way we thought about it as well. It's always a good challenge to bowl to someone like that, he doesn't really use his feet but he can hit the ball hard. It will be a pretty good start to the game if we can get him early.

"In the bowlers' meeting I asked the question how many times he has scored four from the first ball. He likes to get scoring quickly. He's a dangerous player and we'll be looking to get him as quickly as we can. We'll stick to our plans and stick to what we know best of what works against him."

The Australians do seem to have worked Sehwag out better than most sides. His one-day average against Australia is 22.65, notably worse than it is against any other nation, excluding Associates, and it's ten innings since he has made a limited-overs fifty against them.

Getting rid of Sehwag early would be the perfect start for Australia, given that he is India's leading run scorer in this World Cup. That's partially due to his 175 against Bangladesh, an innings that ensured the tournament opened with a bang. Since then, India have looked to Sachin Tendulkar, who has scored two centuries, and Yuvraj Singh, who has been a consistent threat.

But the Australians know that, as formidable as India's batting line-up is, there is always the possibility of a collapse. Against South Africa, India lost their last nine wickets for 29 runs; against England they lost their their last seven for 33; and against West Indies their last seven were skittled for 50. It's a trend that Johnson finds encouraging.

"If we can get two or three of their big guns early on it changes the way they think about their game. It's something we've spoken about and we'll work hard to try and do it. You always target their best players and Sehwag and Tendulkar are their best players, so we think it can change the way they think."

But finding a way through the batting order of Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj is easier said than done. It will be the biggest challenge yet for Australia's attack, which the selectors always intended to be a wicket-taking group, and the offspinner Jason Krejza will also need to work out how to control the world's best players of spin.

"As a bowling unit we feel pretty confident, us three quicks going together, we always look forward to bowling over 140kph and swinging the ball," Johnson said. "There's been talk about the wicket, Sehwag said it will be slow and a bit of a turner, but we have our spinners, Krejza can spin the ball a fair way. It's leading up to be a very good game and we're looking forward to it."

And if Australia's best-laid plans don't work, and they can't find any coats in the Ahmedabad heat, they might have to resort to another of Homer's problem-solving strategies: "I'm not normally a praying man but if you're up there please save me, Superman."