West Indies win comprehensively to end the series on a high
A different West Indies turned up at the ground today as they floored Pakistan by the biggest possible margin of ten wickets. Pakistan choose to bat at the Providence Stadium in Guyana hoping to score more than what they had got in the last ODI, and lost that match through the Duckworth-Lewis. But, a fired up West Indies bowling attack bundled the visitors for a paltry 139.
In reply, the openers started brightly going from strength and strength, eventually overhauling the target without any damage with more than half the overs remaining in the innings. Kirk Edwards and Lendl Simmons played with such dominance that the three successive losses to the same team against the same bowling attack looked ages ago. The Pakistan bowlers looked as ineffective and toothless as their fielding. Actually, they just didn’t have enough runs to play with and for any sort of pressure to build on the batsmen.
Simmons carried his good form to score a half-century, finishing with 77 runs at more than run a ball. His knock was punctuated with seven hits to the ropes and three towering hits into the stands. His partner Edwards was more circumspect in his approach hitting only three boundaries and mainly focused on turning the strike over to Simmons.
Call it the dead rubber syndrome or the typical Pakistan approach to such games, their batsmen looked disinterested and lackadaisical. The visitors’ usual excuse for such games, overconfidence can be rule out after they had lost the previous match by a thin margin.
More than the West Indian bowlers taking their wickets, the Pakistanis gifted them on a platter. Only Mohammad Hafeez showed some application and hit some crisp drives through the off side and brought up yet another half century in the series. The rest of the batsmen failed to handle the bowlers especially Ravi Rampaul who returned with impressive figures of 4 for 45 runs. For a change, the home captain Darren Sammy had something to cheer about with three wickets in his kitty.
The series was already decided when Pakistan raced to a unassailable 3-0 lead but the hosts have manage to pull it back to 3-2, which is definitely a sign of good things. Pakistan were well truly beaten in this match and with the test series starting in a weeks time, they would like to begin afresh where as, the home team would have the confidence and momentum of back to back wins.
© eContent.in
