In an overcooked cliche, both sides have shown the ability over the years to be brilliant one game and abject the next.
West Indies skipper Jason Holder is expecting plenty of entertainment against Pakistan when the two most mercurial sides in international cricket face off in the World Cup in Christchurch on Saturday.
Pakistan and West Indies are both former world champions, both lost their best spin bowler before the tournament and both suffered losses in their campaign openers.
Both sides also have shown the ability over the years to be brilliant one game and abject the next, although it has been a while now since West Indies displayed much brilliance.
The Caribbean islanders suffered a humiliation in their World Cup opener, losing to Ireland by four wickets at Saxton Oval in Nelson on Monday.
That came on the back of a shellacking from England and a narrow victory over Scotland in the warm-ups.
“We can’t let our defeats get us down,” Holder told reporters at Hagley Oval on Friday.
“Obviously we lost a game against Ireland and it was a pretty tough loss, but if we get ourselves down, it’s hard to pick ourselves back up, so we just tried to keep the mood going.
“We’ve obviously addressed a few issues, which we have. We didn’t bowl particularly well in the last game, so that’s a big concern for us (but we go) into tomorrow’s game with full confidence.”
Holder is hoping to have tall spinner Sulieman Benn, who missed the Ireland game, and all-rounder Darren Sammy available despite both experiencing back stiffness.
Pakistan opened their campaign with a more acceptable, if no less hurtful, 76-run defeat to neighbours and reigning champions India in Adelaide last Sunday.
Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq said they were looking closely at their line-up, particularly at experienced opener Younus Khan, who made six against India, and Umar Akmal, who was preferred to specialist wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed in the opener.
Misbah’s has been in good form with the bat himself with 76 against India and 91 not out in a warm-up match against England.
On Saturday, though, he said he would be looking for a few other Pakistani batsmen to stand up.
“It doesn’t mean that all the time it should be me. It should be two other guys out of six or seven batsmen that are playing,” he said.
“We’ll be looking forward at the guys who are not at the moment performing. We know that they are good enough players, and they can just come to the party in the next games.”
PAKISTAN VS WEST INDIES FORM GUIDE
Since their win at the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, West Indies have won four and lost 11 of their 16 One Day Internationals against Pakistan, with one tie.
Chris Gayle needs 60 runs to become the 11th player to score 1,000 runs in ODIs between these teams.
West Indies have lost their last four World Cup matches. They have never lost five in a row.
Misbah-ul-Haq has the joint-highest average (76) in ODIs between these teams, reaching 50 in nine of his 15 innings.
Shahid Afridi needs one wicket to go clear of Shaun Pollock as the outright fifth highest ODI wicket- taker. Both have 393 wickets.
PAKISTAN
Captain: Misbah-ul-Haq
Coach: Waqar Younis
Squad: Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Younus Khan, Misbah, Haris Sohail, Umar Akmal, Sohaib Maqsood, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Irfan, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz, Ehsan Adil, Rahat Ali, Yasir Shah
Results so far at 2015 World Cup:
Lost to India by 76 runs.
Top performers:
Misbah (76 runs); Sohail Khan (five wickets); Misbah (2 catches)
WEST INDIES
Captain: Jason Holder
Coach: Stuart Williams
Squad: Jason Holder, Marlon Samuels, Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Sheldon Cottrell, Chris Gayle, Nikita Miller, Denesh Ramdin, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Jerome Taylor.
Results so far at 2015 World Cup:
Lost to Ireland by four wickets.
Top performers:
Simmons (102 runs); Taylor (three wickets); Ramdin (2 catches), Bravo (2 catches)
Pakistan v West Indies head-to-head:
Total played: 126
Pakistan won 55; West Indies won 68, tied 3.
Last match:
July 24, 2013 – Pakistan won by four wickets at Gros Islet.