PAKISTAN overcame a weak and underperforming West Indies side to clinch the three-match One Day International (ODI) series 2-1, beating the hosts by four wickets in the final game at the Guyana National Stadium yesterday.

It has been more than a quarter of a century since West Indies last defeated Pakistan in a bilateral ODI series. The last time the Caribbean overwhelmed Pakistan was under Richie

Richardson in November 1991, in the latter’s backyard.
The victory was set up, firstly by a disciplined bowling effort, before man-of-the-match Shoaib Malik smashed an unbeaten century, and Mohammed Hafeez contributed a fluent 86-ball 81 runs.

Pakistan were in early trouble as they slumped to 36-3 in their reply within the first nine overs. Shannon Gabriel and Jason Holder had applied the brakes but a magnificent fourth-wicket stand of 113 between Hafeez and Malik steadied the ship and set their team on the path of victory.
Malik then stitched together an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 87 with Sarfraz Ahmed (24 not out) to seal the win.

Malik’s knock of 101 off 111 balls – his 9th ODI ton – guided Pakistan home with 41 balls to spare. The right-hander smashed ten fours and two sixes, with the last six off Holder which eventually sealed the game.
The hosts had their chances to seize control of the match, but paid the price for basic errors.
Earlier, barring battling half-centuries from Shai Hope and Jason Mohammed, it was yet another instance of West Indies batsmen not being able to convert promising starts into substantial contributions, as the hosts were reduced to 233-9 after they opted to bat under overcast conditions.

Mohammed Amir (2-41), Junaid Khan (2-60) and Shadab Khan (2-57) were the most successful bowlers for Pakistan.
Hope and Mohammad combined for a 101-run fourth-wicket partnership in 21.5 overs, which released the shackles after the hosts were reduced to 68-3.
West Indies included Veerasammy Permaul in the final eleven – his first ODI since November 2013. Runs were hard to come by during much of the first half of their innings but Hope (71 off 112 balls) and Mohammed (59 off 64 balls) set their team on course for a competitive total.

Evin Lewis opened proceedings with a crisp drive to the cover boundary off Khan in the second over, while Chadwick Walton got in on the act, with two crunchy boundaries off Amir – one through point and the other wide of mid-on with a straight bat.
But the innings started badly through reckless shots from the openers, as they were both removed in the space of nine balls.
Lewis was caught at the deep square-leg boundary for 16, pulling a short, rising ball from Khan in the eighth over, while Hassan Ali’s golden arm immediately came to the fore.
The Caribbean side suffered another early blow when the out-of-form Walton (19) dragged a delivery that was shaping into him onto the stumps.

Following that dismissal, Kieran Powell and Hope struggled against spinners Hafeez and Imad Wasim and could not rotate the strike regularly or find boundaries.
However, after adding 28 for the third-wicket, Powell did not capitalise on the dropped chance on 16 and was eventually stumped for 23 when he waltzed down the pitch to Wasim.
Hope and Mohammed came together and started rebuilding on a pitch which seemed to be offering the bowlers more assistance as the day progressed.

Mohammed too was in some discomfort upfront but after the run rate slipped to a low 3.34 runs per over both batsmen began to climb their way back into the contest.
With a composed mindset, their intentions were clear: to give their bowlers adequate runs to defend. Mohammed smashed Hasan for sixes in consecutive overs and the pair’s running between the wickets was crisp as they set their team up for the final push.

Mohammed reached his fifty in 59 balls, while Hope achieved his landmark off 97 balls. But following Mohammed’s dismissal, the hosts lost their way at the back end of the innings, losing a number of wickets and could only stitch together 29 runs off the last five overs.
Pakistan went into the series-decider unchanged from the team that won the second ODI by 74 runs. They did not have a great start to the run chase as they lost both openers along with the in-form Babar Azam in the first nine overs.

Kamran Akmal fell off the first delivery of the innings, caught off a leading edge at cover off Gabriel before Holder removed Ahmed Shehzad to a brilliant one-handed catch at the wicket.
Gabriel then completed an explosive opening spell when he bowled Azam off an inside edge that ricocheted into the leg stump.
Hafeez and Shoaib Malik then batted with skill, mettle and intelligence and steadily built a platform that thwarted the hosts’ attack from posing further threats to their batting.
They took the total to 149 before Ashley Nurse provided the breakthrough when he removed Hafeez but at that point the game had already slipped away from the hosts.

Malik and Ahmed then came together and formalised the win.
With qualification for the 2019 World Cup ending on September 30 the West Indies will need to improve quickly in order to reach their goal of qualifying.

SCOREBOARD
WEST INDIES innings
E. Lewis c M. Hafeez b J. Khan 16
C. Walton b H. Ali 19
K. Powell stp. S. Ahmed b I. Wasim 23
S. Hope c S. Malik b S. Khan 71
J. Mohammed c S. Ahmed b J. Khan 59
J. Carter b S. Khan 11
J. Holder c S. Khan b M. Amir 12
A. Nurse not out 10
V. Permaul c M. Hafeez b M. Amir 8
D Bishoo run-out 0
Extras: (lb-1, w-3) 4
Total: (9 wickets, 50 overs) 233
Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-40, 3-68, 4-169, 5-192, 6-211, 7-219, 8-231, 9-233.
Bowling: Mohammad Amir 9-0-41-2, Junaid Khan 10-0-60-2, Hasan Ali 6-1-29-1, Mohammad Hafeez 7-0-21-0, Imad Wasim 10-1-24-1, Shadab Khan 8-0-57-2

PAKISTAN innings
K. Akmal c Powell b Gabriel 0
A. Shehzad c Hope b Holder 3
B. Azam b Gabriel 16
M. Hafeez c Permaul b Nurse 81
S. Malik not out 101
S. Ahmed not out 24
Extras: (b-3, lb-4, w-3, nb-1) 11
Total: (4 wickets, 43.1 overs) 236
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-16, 3-36, 4-149.
Bowling: S. Gabriel 10-0-60-2, J. Holder 8.1-1-37-1, D. Bishoo 10-1-42-0, V. Permaul 4-0-31-0, A. Nurse 10-0-49-1, J. Mohammed 1-0-10-0.