Afridi’s stunning return sinks woeful Windies

Jul 15, 2013 Sports

---

Holder’s heroics with ball in vain

By Sean Devers
Jason Holder captured 4-13 from 10 overs of incisive seam bowling before Shaid Afridi returned to ODIs for the first time since March with an explosive 76 and a mesmerizing spell of leg spin to bag a career best 7-12 to send the West Indies crashing to a 126-run defeat against Pakistan at the Providence Stadium yesterday.

Afridi’s fireworks contained six fours and five sixes and lasted just 55 balls as he shared in a 120-run sixth wicket stand with Skipper Misbah ul Haq who hit a patient 52 from 170 balls as Pakistan reached 224-9 when their 50 overs expired.
Man-of-the-match Afridi, dropped for the Champions Trophy, grabbed his 9th ODI five-wicket haul to dismiss the home team for 98 in 41 overs. It was their lowest total against Pakistan and only their 8th double digit total in ODIs.
This was the first International match in Guyana since May 2011 when Pakistan were last here and West Indies could not ask for better support as a capacity crowd of raucous, flag waving fans produced a Kaleidoscope of colour beyond the boundaries and a Mashramani-like atmosphere.
But the West Indies, with an array of poor shot selections managed to spoil Holder’s effort and the fans party by conjuring another heartbreaking performance for the Sell-out crowd.
West Indies began their run chase in horrendous fashion when Johnson Charles (0) missed a low, swinging full toss and had his stumps uprooted at 1-1 as Mohammed Arfan made the break-through in the first over to silence the raucous, flag waving, sell-out crowd.
Darren Bravo joined Gayle but the left-handed pair was soon separated at 7-2 after Bravo (5) had gotten going with a deft late cut for four but was soon caught behind as Arfan struck twice in two overs.
It was soon 7-3 when the dangerous Gayle (1) was run out by a long way attempting an ill advised single and 39-year-old Pakistan Skipper Misbah ul Haq scored a direct hit from cover.
Marlon Samuels and Lendl Simmons, who scored an unbeaten 77 in the home team’s 10-wicket win against Pakistan in the last ODI in Guyana, got together to engineer a brief West Indies recovery.
Samuels, who had a wretched time in the Tri-Nations series, stroked Asad Ali fluently for successive boundaries to boost his confidence while Simmons (10) and Skipper Bravo (0) were removed with successive deliveries to leave the pumped up Afridi on a hat-trick and sink West Indies to 41-5 in the 23rd over as the runs dried up.
Kieron Pollard with five ODI ducks already for the year, joined Samuels against an all spin attack of Mohammed Hafeez and Afridi and Pollard (3) soon played a brainless drive and was taken at long-off to give the ‘red hot’ Afridi his third victim as the hosts, who have not beaten Pakistan in an ODI series since 1988, catapulted to 60-6.
Afridi continued to befuddle the batsmen and soon trapped Samuels (25 from 75 balls) LBW at 51-7 as he enjoyed a memorable return to International cricket.
It was soon 55-8 when Kemar Roach (1) was caught and bowled by the virtually unplayable Afridi.
Sammy (21*) and Sunil Narine (14) came together with their team one run more than their lowest ODI total (54 v S/Africa 2004) and carried them to 98 with a 47-run ninth wicket stand before Narine punched Afridi to cover and Holder was LBW to Afridi for a duck to finish the contest in emphatic fashion.
Earlier, West Indies elected to field in overcast conditions. Holder struck in the fourth over when he bowled Ahmed Shehzad (5), after being cut elegantly for four in the same over.
Shehzad played no shot to a length ball just outside the off stump and got an inside edge onto his stumps and the visitors were in early trouble at 15-1.
Two overs later Hafeez (1) who will represent the Guyana Franchise, was bowled by the towering Holder when he misjudged the line, offered no shot and had his stumps disturbed to leave the tourists on 18-2.
Pakistan, who were bundled out for 139 in the last ODI to be played here, slumped to 23-4 when rain stopped played after 9.1 overs at 09:56hrs.
Nasir Jamshed (6) and Asad Shafiq, who was stupendously caught behind by Charles for a duck were both removed as the 21 year-old Holder, with just three previous ODIs to his name, struck twice in the space of two runs.
When played resumed half hour later, Umar Akmal back in the side, flicked Sammy for six over square-leg.   But when the wicket-keeper who replaced his brother Kamran in the side, reached 19 he fell to a well judged catch running back from mid-on by Dwayne Bravo off a Roach ‘slower ball’ to leave Pakistan in further trouble at 47-5.
The sun returned in all of its glory and so did Afridi. He joined ul-Haq and the 50 was posted in the 21st over with a six over long-off from the entertaining ‘Boom Boom’ Afridi off Roach.
Afridi pounced on Bravo and clobbered the West Indies Captain for a six and a four off consecutive balls in the 25th over before being dropped next ball on 20 as Gayle at slip floored an offering high to his right off the leading edge.
The captain reversed swept off-spinner Narine for his only boundary while Afridi was on fire and brought up the fifty run partnership with ul Haq from just 45 balls by lofting Narine for a six back over his head.
He then backed away and smashed the Trinidadian, who will play for Guyana in the CPL, to the cover boundary off successive balls as the pair orchestrated a Pakistan revival.
The 33-year old Afridi galloped to his 35th ODI fifty from just 35 balls with consecutive boundaries off Sammy. His half century was decorated with five fours and three sixes.
The batting power-play was taken in the 36th over with the score on 141-5 and Afridi dumped off-spinner Marlon Samuels over long-on for his 5th six to post the 150.
Afridi then smashed a wide half volley from Pollard with one hand to the point boundary. But Pollard gained revenge a few balls later when Sammy, on the deep mid-wicket boundary held a tumbling catch to get rid of Afridi at 167-6.
Afridi was his usual explosive self while ul Haq played the supporting role with level-headed batting on a slow track which made free scoring a tedious task until Afridi’s arrival at the crease.
The sixth wicket stand was worth 120 runs but although ul Haq’s contribution was only 28 his occupation of the crease was vital for Pakistan as Afridi ‘boomed’ away.
After Afridi’s dismissal, Wahab Riaz joined his Skipper who reached his 50 from 120 balls and together they took their team to 183 before Riaz (7) fell to Roach. Bravo then removed ul Haq and Ali (11) as the 50 overs expired with the last pair at the crease.
Bravo supported Holder with 2-52 from his 10 overs for the West Indies who slumped to their in fourth defeat at Providence in seven ODIs and 16th against Pakistan the Caribbean.
It was also their heaviest defeat at Providence, surpassing the 113-run loss to Sri Lanka in the 2007 World Cup and a vastly improved performance is anticipated tomorrow when they play the second ODI in the five match series.

SCOREBOARD
PAKISTAN (maximum 50 overs)
Nasir Jamshed lbw b Holder 6
Ahmed Shehzad b Holder 5
Mohammad Hafeez b Holder 1
*Misbah-ul-Haq c wkpr Charles b *D.J. Bravo 52
Asad Shafiq c wkpr Charles b Holder 0
+Umar Akmal c *D.J. Bravo b Roach 19
Shahid Afridi c Sammy b Pollard 76
Wahab Riaz c Holder b Roach 7
Saeed Ajmal not out 15
Asad Ali b *D.J. Bravo 11
Mohammad Irfan not out 4
Extras (b1, lb4, w23) 28
TOTAL (9 wkts, 50 overs) 224

Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Ahmed Shehzad, 3.3 overs); 2-18
(Mohammad Hafeez, 5.6); 3-21 (Nasir Jamshed, 7.6);
4-23 (Asad Shafiq, 9.1); 5-47 (Umar Akmal, 20.1);
6-167 (Shahid Afridi, 38.6); 7-183 (Wahab Riaz, 44.2);
8-200 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 47.2); 9-220 (Asad Ali, 49.5)

Bowling: Roach 10-0-38-2 (w6); Holder 10-4-13-4 (w1);
Sammy 8-2-35-0; *D.J. Bravo10-3-52-2 (w2);
Narine3-0-32-0 (w6); Samuels 3-0-24-0(w6);
Pollard 6-0-25-1 (w2)

WEST INDIES (target: 225 off 50 overs)
C. Gayle run out (*Misbah-ul-Haq) 1
+J. Charles b Mohammad Irfan 0
D.M. Bravo c wkpr Umar Akmal b Mohammad Irfan 5
M Samuels lbw b Shahid Afridi 25
L Simmons st Umar Akmal b Shahid Afridi 10
*D.J. Bravo lbw b Shahid Afridi 0
K. Pollard c Wahab Riaz b Shahid Afridi  3
D. Sammy not out 21
K. Roach c and b Shahid Afridi  1
S. Narine c Nasir Jamshed b Shahid Afridi 14
J. Holder lbw b Shahid Afridi 1
Extras (b1, lb6, w11) 18
TOTAL (all out, 41 overs) 98

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Charles, 0.2 overs);
2-7 (D.M. Bravo, 4.3); 3-7 (Gayle, 4.6); 4-41 (Simmons, 22.1);
5-41 (D.J. Bravo, 22.2); 6-50 (Pollard, 26.1);
7-51 (Samuels, 28.2); 8-55 (Roach, 30.4); 9-98 (Narine, 40.2)
Bowling: Mohammad Irfan 7-2-17-2 (w4);
Asad Ali 5-0-13-0; Wahab Riaz 5-1-8-0;
Saeed Ajmal 7-0-25-0 (w4); Mohammad Hafeez 8-1-16-0 (w1);
Shahid Afridi 9-3-12-7 (w2)

Result: Pakistan won by 126 runs
Series: Pakistan lead five-match series 1-0
Toss: West Indies
Man-of-the-Match: Shahid Afridi (Pakistan)
Umpires: P. Reiffel (Australia), J. Wilson
TV umpire: N. Llong (England)
Match referee: D. Boon (Australia)
Reserve umpire: P. Nero

---

---