West Indies held nerves in the dying moments to clinch a thrilling two-wicket win over Pakistan in a low-scoring ICC Champions Trophy clash at the Oval on Friday.
The Caribbean side hobbled in purist of modest 171-run target before romping home with more then eight overs to spare.
Pakistani pace trio Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan and Wahab Riaz exploited lots of carry of the track, which was earlier forecasted to aid the batsmen.
West Indies’ chase began on a poor note as Johnson Charles (9) and Darren Bravo (4) perished off Irfan cheaply. The back-to-back dismissals jolted the 2004 champions of the event but Chris Gayle (39) and Marlon Samuels (30) soon overcame the damage with their sagacious batting.
The two batsmen shared 63 runs for the third wicket before Saeed Ajmal nettled the stumps of Jamaican left-hander with a magical doosra.
Kieron Pollard hits the ball all the way
Soon after, Raiz edged Ramnaresh Sarwan to Kamran Akmal behind the stumps to peg West Indies further back.
When Samuels departed to pavilion after getting caught behind off Mohammad Hafeez, West Indies had been reduced to 94-5.
With the Caribbean side loosening its clutches over the game, Kieron Pollard put his typical slam-bang style aside and adopted a levelheaded approach. He scored his first run off 18th delivery. Skipper Dwayne Bravo, on the other end, was also taking deliveries to get the momentum.
The 43-run partnership between them restored West Indian semblance before Riaz edged Pollard behind the stumps to give Pakistan much-crucial breakthrough. And when Bravo trapped lbw in the next over while trying to play a slog-sweep shot off Ajmal, West Indies had needed 28 runs off more than 13 overs.
The quick dismissals lightened up Pakistan’s hopes however, Sunil Narine dimmed them by cracking a couple of boundaries. Irfan lulled Pakistan by scalping Narine, however, Kemar Roach’s boundary off Junaid in the next over took the men in maroon past target.
Earlier, asked to bat, Pakistan witnessed horrible collapse as they were bundled out for 170 in 48 overs.
Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq a determined unbeaten 96 and Nasir Jamshed hit a 93-ball 50 but the rest of others came a cropper.
Roach was the pick of West Indian bowling with the figures of 3-30, Narine finished with 3-34.
