Stunning Akmal sinks Windies

Kamran Akmal left the West Indies stunned and beaten, as his maiden One Day International ton allowed Pakistan to cruise to victory in the third match of the VB Series. Akmal was in sublime touch and faced 125 balls for his 124, whilst hitting 12 boundaries. Indeed, the West Indian bowlers had no answer for him and Pakistan ultimately achieved their target of 274 with 3 overs to spare.

Having been inserted, the West Indies batted first and started well. In potentially difficult conditions and against some quality seam bowling by Naved-ul-Hasan, Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds played a mix of caution and aggression in a partnership of 86 for the first wicket.

Hinds (29) skied a flighted Hafeez offering to Salman Butt in the deep, bringing Ramnaresh Sarwan to the crease. The right-hander attempted to keep the strike rotating with singles, but failed to look as fluent as Gayle in the initial stages. Gayle went on to score 82 off 99 balls with impressive maturity, but was dismissed via a top-edged pull off Abdur Razzaq.

At 149/2, Brian Lara joined Sarwan in the middle of the 34th over. He proceeded to play a lovely cameo of 39 off 30 balls. Just when the tempo of the action was set to increase further, Lara was caught at point of Naved-ul-Hasan. Two ball later, Akmal took a fine catch to dismiss big hitter Ricardo Powell for no score.

The score was then 211/4 and Chanderpaul partnered his fellow Guyanese. His was a busy 25 off 22 balls and Sarwan accelerated to contribute 76 off 91 balls. The latter was the last man out, caught off Azhar Mahmood, bowling the last ball of the innings.

Set 274 to win, Pakistan started positively in the first few oves. Some 28 runs came from 5, then Mervyn Dillon replaced an out-of-sorts Ian Bradshaw in the attack for the 6th. He immediately produced something special, spectacularly yorking Salman Butt for 10 amidst a wicket-maiden.

In his next over, Dillon found another good delivery and had Mohammad Hafeez (2) caught low down at slip. The score then 36/2, it appeared Pakistan would have a big task on their hands. However, Akmal never ceased to be positive.

He and the equally stroke-happy Shoaib Malik (60) put on 123 runs for the third wicket from just 121 balls. The breakthrough finally came with Courtney Browne taking a sharp catch 'keeping up to the stumps against Bradshaw. Malik's run-a-ball innings came to an end.

This was little worry though, as captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was the replacement at the crease. Continuing with the form he found against Australia on Sunday, cruising to 62 not out off 51 balls and guiding his team to a comfortable 6-wicket win. Also there at the end was Yousuf Youhana (9 not out).

Kamran Akmal's wonderful innings - his first ODI venture past 50 - came to an end with a soft dismissal, caught by Lara off Bradshaw.

The most disappointing of the West Indian bowling attack proved two of the most crucial. Pedro Collins (10-0-50-0), brought in to bolster the seam attack, struggled. With even more problems, Marlon Samuels (9-0-72-0) could not reproduce his fine spell against the Australians in the series opener. Overall six bowlers were used, excluding Gayle, who was not fit to bowl.

The bowling aspect for Pakistan was rather unpleasant too, largely due to Shoaib Akhtar's inability to bowl more than 2.5 overs in the West Indies innings. The pacy spearhead pulled up with a left hamstring injury after producing figures of 2.5-0-7-0.

Score Summary:

West Indies innings 273/5 (50 overs)
CH Gayle 82 (99), RR Sarwan 76 (91), BC Lara 39 (30)
Naved-ul-Hasan 2/55 (10), Abdul Razzaq 1/43 (7)

Pakistan innings 274/4 (47 overs)
Kamran Akmal 124 (125), Inzamam-ul-Haq 62* (51), Shoaib Malik 60 (60)
Mervyn Dillon 2/46 (10), Ian Bradshaw 2/49 (10)

Result: Pakistan won by 6 wickets
Man of the Match: Kamran Akmal (Pak)

Posted by Liam