http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 – The fifth and final One Day clash at Guyana as hosts look to redeem their fortunes
After losing the first three matches of the five-match One Day International Series against Pakistan, the West Indian camp was looking to restore their lost pride by recording wins in the last two matches of the series. Lady luck smiled at them as they won the fourth match at Kensington Oval in Barbados, on May 3, 2011.
However, the win was only possible due to rain, after which the Duckworth-Lewis method was applied, awarding the Windies with a 1-run victory.
Sammy was relieved when his team reached 154/4, courtesy a timely six by Darren Bravo only two balls before intervention from the Rain Gods. He stated that the win took a long time to come.
"We needed this win. It's been a while." Sammy stated to the media as he looked relieved after a tumultuous time off late.
However, the Windies have a lot of questions to answer before they can claim that they have had success in their re-building process. The only bright spot in the batting line-up remains Lendl Simmons who has been performing brilliantly at the top of the innings.
His 76 was invaluable to the team cause in Kensington, besides him Darren Bravo is the only batsman who has offered some resistance to the wily Pakistani spin trio of Saeed Ajmal, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 and Mohammad Hafeez.
Mohammad Hafeez underlined his potential as one of the leading all-rounders in the world with a thumping 121 in the match at Kensington.
Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi was all praise for Hafeez and Asad Shafiq who lifted the Men in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Green-c60723 to a commanding position before a lower-order slump tilted the balance in favour of the hosts.
He was of the opinion that his team squandered a golden opportunity of posting a match winning total and that in the end cost them the game, forfeiting the opportunity of inflicting a 5-0 whitewash on the Caribbean Kings.
"The way Mohammad Hafeez played on a difficult pitch, and Asad Shafiq, I think we should have got 270-275. We missed that chance, and didn't bat that well in the end," said Afridi.
Meanwhile both teams are set to retain the XI that took the field for the fourth game. The Men in Green gave caps to middle order batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Usman-Salahuddin-c94700 and pacer Tanvir Ahmed, however, both failed to make much of an impact in the limited opportunities that they were provided. They would be hoping to have a full match at Guyana for them to showcase their talents.
The West Indians would be bolstered by the bowling performance in the last match, especially at the end of the innings where Devendra Bishoo had the batsmen in a spin.
Teams for 5th ODI:
Pakistan (possible) 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Asad Shafiq, 4 http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319.
West Indies (possible) 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Kirk Edwards, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 5 Marlon Samuels, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Darren Sammy (capt), 8 http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Carlton-Baugh-c49264 (wk), 9 Ravi Rampaul, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Devendra Bishoo.
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