On a dry Multan surface, Pakistan faced stutters from an unexpected challenge in the form of West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran, but the hosts’ overall strength eventually propelled them past the visitors again in the third ODI on June 12.
Pooran’s gentle part-time off-spin bowling troubled a settled Pakistan batting unit for curious reasons as his four for 48 reduced the hosts to a precarious 117/5 at one stage. Collapsing from 88 for one, the Men in Green, however, stood on their feet again and posted 269/9 by the end of the innings.
This, thanks largely to allrounder Shadab Khan’s magnificent 86 off 78 balls at No.7. The Pakistan vice-captain led his team’s recovery and allowed them to reach a position of strength on a surface where chasing anything above 240 was going to be a real challenge.
It helped Pakistan that Khushdil Shah (34) rallied along with Shadab when the chips were down, while Imam-ul-Haq continued his great run in the 50-overs version with a 68-ball 62 at the top before the collapse happened.
Apart from Pooran, Akeal Hosein (1/43) was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors, who also had Keemo Paul (2/53) and Hayden Walsh (1/66) amongst the wickets, but they proved very expensive given the conditions.
Familiar batting problems held the Windies back, as they simply couldn’t manoeuvre the field enough and rotate strike finding themselves under pressure to get the boundaries and forced to take extra risks to achieve the same. It meant regular wickets for the Pakistanis.
Shadab backed up his brilliant act in the first half with a four-fer (4/62) to lead the bowling charts, too. Hasan Ali (2/29) and Mohammad Nawaz (2/56) also made two scalps each.
Hosein, the lower-order bat, was the top-scorer for the Caribbean men with a fighting 60 off just 37 deliveries in an innings where the next highest score was 33 from Keacy Carty.
Eventually, the visitors were bundled out for 216, 53 runs short on DLS in a rain-adjusted 48-overs per side game.
Brief scores
Pakistan 269/9 in 48 overs (Khan 86, ul-Haq 62; Pooran 4/48) beat West Indies 216 in 37.2 overs (Hosein 60; Khan 4/62, Nawaz 2/56) by 53 runs
