Shahrukh Khan
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West Indies v Pakistan, 1st ODI, St Vincent
West Indies tumble to 59-run defeat
A disciplined Pakistan performance in the field allowed them to ease to a 59-run win in St Vincent and take a 1-0 lead in the series. Faced with a target of 193 West Indies' batting slumped in familiar fashion against a varied attack and, once the top-order was blown away, they folded meekly as Abdul Razzaq finished with 4 for 29.
All the Pakistan seamers bowled tightly and intelligently, with Naved-ul-Hasan particularly impressive, and they were backed up by Shahid Afridi's mixture of brisk legbreaks and googlies. An alert fielding performance, which showed the hallmarks of the hard work put in by Bob Woolmer since he took over as coach, strangled the West Indies' batting and led a series of poor strokes.
The average first-innings score at Arnos Vale is just 207, so Pakistan's 192 was not going to be a stroll in the sunshine, but it began to take on huge proportions when both openers were out-thought by Naved.
Xavier Marshall is woefully out of his depth at this level - hardly surprising, with such limited domestic experience behind him - and again could only prod around optimistically. Naved, who repeatedly surprised the West Indians with his deceptive pace, tried him with a bouncer and Marshall obliged with a limp pull shot, which looped up for Kamran Akmal to take a simple catch next to first slip.
Chris Gayle started with a bang, as is often the case, taking three fours off Rao Iftikhar's third over, before he was also undone by a Naved bouncer. This time the top-edge required a brilliant athletic catch from Akmal, as he sprinted from behind the stumps to a backward square-leg position. He dived and held on to the catch, winding himself in the process, and Pakistan knew they had removed the one batsman who was capable of dominating on this tricky surface and slow outfield.
Shabbir Ahmed induced Ramnaresh Sarwan to edge a catch to second slip, before Afridi ended Runako Morton's tortuous 48-ball 13 with the first delivery of his spell. Although there was some doubt as to whether the ball brushed the inside edge, Morton never settled at the crease in his first international innings since February 2002, in Sharjah.
Razzaq then exploited the fragile confidence of the West Indian middle order. Wavell Hinds got an inside-edge into his stumps, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul played a limp shot outside off stump. The pitch became increasingly difficult to time shots on, and as the ball grew softer boundaries were a rare commodity. Gayle had managed five while the ball was new, the rest of the order managed just four between them.
Gayle had earlier starred with the ball as Pakistan suffered a collapse of their own, slumping from 133 for 3 to 192 all out. He bowled Inzamam-ul-Haq and two balls later flung himself to his right, to take a stunning one-handed catch, as Younis Khan got a leading edge to another non-turning offspinner.
Ian Bradshaw bowled a superb opening spell of seven overs and his probing off-stump line meant the top order could not force the pace. Salman Butt played well, to see off the threat, and his 43 proved to be the highest score of the match but, worryingly for West Indies, Pakistan's batting has plenty in reserve.
A small comfort for West Indies was that their performance in the field was the best of all their one-day internationals this season. But it is no good getting half your game right, if the other half fails, and this has to go down has another match West Indies should have won.
The series is still alive with two matches remaining, in St Lucia over the weekend. However, this West Indian team seem incapable of putting all the facets of their game together, and they have just two days to find some answers. Don't hold your breath.
Bazigaar
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Pakistan condemned West Indies to their seventh straight one-day defeat of the season, and their 11th in 12 completed matches since their victory in the final of the Champions Trophy, as Shahid Afridi ripped his legspinners through a bamboozled tail for figures of 4 for 40. His efforts came on the back of a solid if unspectacular Pakistani batting performance, and ensured that West Indies will have nothing but pride to play for in tomorrow's third and final match.
After winning the toss and batting first, Pakistan struggled to dominate a spirited West Indian bowling attack, but once each of their top eight had reached double figures, they were able to muster a competitive total of 258 for 8. The main men of the innings were Shoaib Malik and Inzamam-ul-Haq, who made a brace of 51s, and Younis Khan, who seemed set to complete a half-century of his own until he was brilliantly caught for 48 in the final over of the innings, by a one-handed Chris Gayle, diving to his left at backward point.
Breathtaking though Gayle's effort was, it had come some 220 runs too late for West Indies. His earlier missed opportunity off Daren Powell at first slip had let a nervous Shoaib Malik off the hook before he had settled, and prevented West Indies from taking the game by the scruff of the neck. Without ever looking on top form, Shoaib scratched and scraped to rebuild the innings after the early loss of both openers, Shahid Afridi and Salman Butt.
Yousuf Youhana brought up Pakistan's fifty with a sweetly timed drive through the covers. But before he could really get stuck in, he was adjudged caught-behind for 21 off Wavell Hinds. In his place, however, came the solid reassurance of Inzamam, who punished Hinds with two dismissive strokes off consecutive deliveries - a cut and a pull - as Pakistan reached the 30-over mark well-placed on 134 for 3.
Inzamam was briefly forced to retire hurt after taking an eye-watering blow in the box from a Gayle full-toss, but in his place came the urgent presence of Adbul Razzaq, who clubbed a quick 20 off 16 balls before losing his off stump to a wild swing at Corey Collymore. Dwayne Bravo, whose bowling had been expensive all day, was then cracked for three fours in the penultimate over as Pakistan finished their innings with a flourish.
Having failed to chase 192 in the first game, the omens were not good as West Indies began their reply, and Xavier Marshall duly came and went with another whimper, caught in the gully for 7 after looking horribly out of his depth for the second match running. But where there's Chris Gayle, no one-day chase can be entirely written off, and when he launched Shabbir Ahmed over long-off for a massive six, West Indies' hopes soared.
But three balls later, they came crashing once again, as Shabbir clipped the top of Gayle's off stump with a spectacular offcutter. He was gone for 43 from 45 balls, and when Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were both run out in quick succession, West Indies had slumped to 114 for 4.
Despite being given a charmed life by umpire Billy Doctrove, who turned down a succession of lbw appeals from Razzaq and Afridi, Runako Morton began to grow in stature, and brought up his maiden one-day half-century with a one-bounce pull over midwicket off Shoaib. But, in the very next over, he was bamboozled by Afridi's slower ball, and bowled all ends up as he aimed an expansive heave into the Caribbean Sea.
Bravo then completed a miserable match with a fourth-ball duck, as Doctrove finally upheld an lbw appeal, and Afridi made it three wickets in nine balls when Hinds misread a googly and was bowled round his legs for 22. Courtney Browne attempted to be defiant by slamming Shoaib for six, before Afridi picked up his fourth, bowling Ian Bradshaw as he too went for the big one.
That was emphatically that. Browne slapped another six to reduce the margin of defeat, but the final two wickets fell in the space of five balls, as Iftikhar Anjum and Naved-ul-Hasan returned to wrap up the match with 10 balls to spare. It was, incidentally, Pakistan's first series victory in the Caribbean, but few triumphs can have felt so flat.
Bazigaar
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With the one-day series safely in the bag, Pakistan are now eyeing victory in the Test series against West Indies. Speaking to the media after Pakistan's comfortable 40-run win the second match in St Lucia, Younis Khan, who led the team in the field after Inzmam-ul-Haq was injured during batting, said: "We've never won a Test series here, so it's my golden chance. We are playing our best cricket for a while." Younis will captain the side in the first Test, as Inzamam will be serving a one-match suspension.
Younis also said that the tours of Australia and India had helped toughen the team. "I think the tough tours to Australia and India have helped us gel as a team and believe in ourselves," the BBC website quoted him as saying. "Those tours were a turning point for us."
Shoaib Malik, who won the Man-of-the-Match award for scoring 51 and bowling ten overs of tidy offspin, reckoned that Pakistan's total of 258 was below par. "In my opinion, the score was a little short - it was a 270-plus [wicket] - but if you work hard in bowling, then you can manage." Pakistan, who came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat India 4-2 in the ODI series last month, have now won six one-dayers in a row.
For West Indies, on the other hand, it was another disappointing defeat, their eighth consecutive one, which equalled their worst run - they had been beaten eight times in a row in 1999-2000, when they lost three matches in Sharjah and then five in New Zealand. (click here for more details.) Shivnarine Chanderpaul, their captain, blamed the defeat on the batsmen. "Obviously the batting has been letting us down in most of the games and we need to pick it up," he said. "Our experienced batsmen need to take on the responsibility and do the job." He was encouraged, though, by the presence of David Scott, the performance-enhancement specialist who has come down to see the last two matches of the series. "It gives us an opportunity to talk to him and see if there is anything he can provide to help us approach the mental side of cricket."
West Indies play the last match of the series at the same venue today (Sunday, May 22), after which the two teams will be involved in a two-Test series.
