Related Links : West Indies in Pakistan 06-07 : Scorecard
Pakistan have clinched the fifth and final One Dayer at the National Stadium in Karachi by a comfortable margin of 7 wickets. They have won the 5-ODI Series by 3-1. Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s ton in the first half of the game that took West Indies to 238 has gone in vain due to half centuries from Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Hafeez.
Put into bat first by Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Captain of Pakistan who had returned from his finger injury, West Indies had a disappointing start losing Chris Gayle once again to Rana Naved. Chanderpaul, the other opener steadied things along with the young Lendl Simmons before he was bowled by a Sami delivery which left West Indies at 53 for 2 after 13 overs. Inform batsman, Marlon Samuels stuck around for a while with Chanderpaul before getting stump out to Abdur Rehman, the left arm spinner who had returned back to the side. Also back in the team for Pakistan were Mohammad Yousuf and Umar Gul. West Indies had brought back Corey Collymore for Ian Bradshaw.
Brian Lara who was probably playing his last game in Pakistan had a good stay in the middle to help West Indies get to the 200-run mark before falling in the slogs. Lara scored a well paced 44. In course of his innings, Brian Lara crossed the 10000 runs milestone in his ODI Career. Pakistan were successful in restricting Windies for just 238 at the loss of 7 wickets with Chanderpaul not able to blast around. He scored his 101 runs from 142 balls which was more of a sheet anchor’s role. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan finished with 4 for 43 which later earned him the Man of the Match. He was also the Man of the Series.
Pakistan decided to open with Kamran Akmal along with Hafeez and the two batsmen were in complete ease in getting their strokes going on a good batting pitch. They put on 87 in good time before Kamran Akmal was taken by substitute Jerome Taylor off Corey Collymore’s bowling. Akmal scored 56 from 59 with 9 fours and a six. Windies could never come back in the game with Hafeez putting up as many runs as he had got with Kamran Akmal with Yasir Hameed. Hafeez was unlucky in missing out on his maiden century by just 8 runs. His 92 came in 111 balls with 5 fours and a couple of sixes. Shoaib Malik also got amongst the runs, he remained unbeaten on 34 to take Pakistan home by 7 wickets with 3.1 overs to spare. The big boys Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq were not required to play any part in the run chase which was a promising thing for the future for Pakistan. Both the teams clash again in the World Cup opener on March 13 at the Sabina Park!