It has been widely speculated ahead of this World Cup that a side could make 500 for the first time in one-day international cricket. If ever a fixture was designed to make that possible, Pakistan versus West Indies at Trent Bridge would likely be it.
The two sides meet in Nottingham on Friday with similar issues. Their bowling attacks appear relatively brittle. Their respective batting? Blistering.
Pakistan are on a run of 10 successive defeats in ODIs, despite the fact they have registered scores of 307, 361, 358, 340 and 297 in their past five games.
West Indies, for their part, have made scores of 389, 381 and 360 in ODIs this year, while in their last warm-up match before this tournament, they made 421 against New Zealand.
The venue makes the idea of a first 500 enticing, too. County sides have regularly breached 400 in limited-overs cricket at Trent Bridge this season, while England posted the ODI record of 481 against Australia there last year.
“When we came here on the first day and asked the groundsman what is the par score he told us that it's 480,” Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed said.
Sarfaraz maintains that opposition sides will still fear his team, despite their woeful run of results in the lead up to the competition.
“I think it's good to be unpredictable,” said Sarfaraz, who confirmed Mohammed Amir will be fit to contend for a place in the starting XI.
“All teams are scared because of Pakistan. At the end of the day, Pakistan team is very dangerous.
“We are not thinking about the previous results. We didn't play well as a team, but our batting is performing well, so we don't think about it.
“We are very focused and we are very hopeful as a team that we will do well in this World Cup.”
Jason Holder, the West Indies captain, played down the idea that a side boasting the firepower of Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis and Andre Russell could be about to set new batting records.
“We assess the conditions as early as possible and we play to suit,” Holder said.
“I think where the game has gone now, especially in England, there have been some high totals, but there have been one or two games lately that were relatively low scoring. It can happen.
“That's the nature of the game. I just don't want to sit before a game and say we're looking to score 500 or 600, I just want to play it as we see it as assess the conditions like any other game.
“One thing I like coming into this tournament is that every player is in a good frame of mind. Everybody is playing with a smile on their face, and I think that's how we play our best cricket.”
