'Dre Russ', the muscular Jamaican, is a powerful striker of the cricket ball. We have all seen him smash balls into the stands for Kolkata Knight Riders in the last few editions of the IPL, but only a few would
remember his rampage against Pakistan at Christchurch during the 2015 World Cup.
The match began with Pakistani skipper Misbah-ul-Haq inviting the Windies to bat first. After losing openers Chris Gayle and Dwayne Smith early, a poor display of fielding by Pakistan allowed the Windies batsmen to rebuild.
The level of cricket was mediocre until the end of 36th over as Windies reached 167/3 with Darren Bravo having retired hurt.
With 14 overs in hand, Dinesh Ramdin and Lendl Simmons started a turnaround by taking on Haris Sohail, a part-timer used as the fifth bowler in the match. Ramdin departed after making a half-century and Darren Sammy subsequently belted 30 off 28 deliveries before falling to the first ball of the 48th over.
With 17 balls left in the match and the Windies still far from the 300-run mark, Andre Russell came out to the middle and bludgeoned the Pakistani bowlers into submission, smashing three huge sixes and four boundaries. He took advantage of the fact that the bowlers did not bowl any yorkers, clearing his legs to hammer the ball to the fence.
He was on course to smash the fastest fifty in ODI history but ran out of deliveries while scoring an unbeaten 13-ball 42 to power Windies to 310/6 in 50 overs, with 143 of them coming off the last 84
deliveries. Simmons was out to the ball of the innings after scoring a fifty that came off 46 balls.
Chasing a huge total, Pakistan had the worst start in ODI history as they were reduced to 1/4 in 3.1 overs. Sohaib Maqsood and Umar Akmal salvaged some respect for Pakistan with fighting half-centuries.
Shahid Afridi was the only other notable contributor, scoring 28 off 26 balls, as Russell finished off a brilliant all-round display, returning figures of 3/33 from his eight overs.
Pakistan were routed by 150 runs after being bundled out with 11 overs to spare. Russell was adjudged the Man of the Match for his high-octane performance in both innings.
He played some important cameos throughout the tournament to power the Windies into the quarters, where they were knocked out by hosts New Zealand.