KARACHI, 17 December 2006 — Pakistan recorded an emphatic seven-wicket win over West Indies in the fifth and final One-Day International to clinch the series 3-1 here at the National Stadium yesterday.
The first game of the five-match ODI series between the two countries was abandoned without result due to rains.
It was a Pakistan-show throughout the day. Their bowlers responded to their skipper’s challenge when Inzamam ul-Haq asked the visitors to bat first after winning the toss here at a wicket which was tailor-made for batting — flat, grassless and with a good bounce. Many eyebrows were raised on Inzamam’s rather unusual decision at the NSK wicket which has always been batsman-friendly and where the average total of the team batting first has been 276.
But as it turned out, West Indies could manage only 238 for seven from 50 overs on a flat batting track which speaks volumes of the quality of Pakistan bowling with Rana Naved ul-Hasan leading the pack with 4 for 43. He was ably supported by young left-arm spinner Abdur Rahman, playing only in his third ODI, who ended with 2 for 39 from 10 overs.
It was quite clear that West Indies had fallen short by at least 40 runs in the target they set for Pakistan to win the match and the series although talking to media after the match, skipper Brian Lara said another 25 runs would have made the match more contesting.
After the Pakistani bowlers had restricted the visitors to a rather unimpressive score, Pakistani openers Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal gave their team a solid opening start of 87 runs to set the march to victory. Hafeez played fluent, match winning knock of 92 and missed his well-deserved century as he tried to force Chris Gayle over the long on boundary where Runako Morton took a well-judged catch. His partner, Kamran Akmal, who opened the innings in the absence of Imran Farhat, contributed a breezy 56 off 66 balls which included nine boundaries and two sixes. Playing with a convincing win on their back in the previous match in Multan three days ago, this West Indies side did not look like a shadow of team that won in Multan to raise hopes of their supporters that they may win the last match and manage to level the series. But Pakistan, bolstered by the return of their big guns, Inzamam, Mohammad Yousuf and fast bowler Umar Gul, never allowed the tourists to even think of taking control of this last match.
Batting first, West Indies lost two early wickets’ those of Gayle and Lendl Simmons for just 43 runs Rana Naved who was in brilliant form got the breakthrough by trapping Gayle leg-before while Mohammad Sami, playing for the first time in this series clean bowled Simmons when the total was 53.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul managed his fourth ODI century — and his first against Pakistan — but his knock consumed 142 deliveries, and the West Indian innings had little urgency till Brian Lara came to the crease and stroked a crisp 44, in the process becoming only the fifth batsman to get to 10,000 ODI runs.
Once again the oft-repeated saga was repeated. Once Chanderpaul and Lara had departed, both falling prey to Naved, there hardly much resistance left. While the Pakistani bowlers bowled accurately and always maintained the stranglehold, the West Indies pace attack proved totally ineffective and failed to control Akmal from scoring at will. During their five-week stay in Pakistan the West Indies could win only one ODI, having earlier lost the three Test series by 2-0 and now the one-day series by 3-1.
