Inzi anchors narrow victory

FAISALABAD—Abdur Rehman enjoyed a successful debut in one-day internationals as Pakistan beat West Indies by two wickets in a low-scoring match in Faisalabad.
Slow left-armer Rehman, 26, took 2-20 in his 10 overs as an under-strength West Indies were bowled out for 151. Just 16 balls were remaining when Pakistan hit the winning runs, with Inzamam-ul-Haq guiding the team home. The skipper hit an unbeaten 42 despite the pressure caused by Corey Collymore (3-19) and Jerome Taylor (3-39) Pakistan won the toss at the Iqbal Stadium after the first match in the series, in Rawalpindi, had been washed out.
Star batsman Mohammad Yousuf missed the game to be with his pregnant wife in Lahore, but West Indies had more extensive problems in the build-up. With Ramnaresh Sarwan (broken foot) and Dwayne Bravo (personal reasons) out of the series, Shiv Chanderpaul (knee) then succumbed to a late injury, leaving Lendl Simmons to make his debut. The 21-year-old nephew of former player Phil Simmons opened the batting but lasted just two balls when nicking a catch to Kamran Akmal off Gul. By then, Chris Gayle had fallen to the fourth ball of the second over, bowled by Naved - and from 2-2 it was always going to be difficult for West Indies to recover their composure. They did make a partial recovery through the effforts of Runako Morton, who hit 43 off 66 balls batting at seven. But Rehman, Umar Gul (2-19) and Naved-ul-Hasan (2-32) combined economy with penetration and West Indies were bowled out with a ball remaining of their 50-over allotment. When Mohammad Hafeez nicked a Taylor outswinger behind on the first ball of Pakistan’s chase, there was some pressure on the hosts. The Pakistani batsmen kept chipping away at their target but when Abdul Razzaq fell for 17 to leave the hosts 118-6 in the 41st over, the match was far from over. However Inzamam maintained his cool and Pakistan crept past the finishing line. Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq capped his return with an uncharacteristic unbeaten 42 to help his side beat the West Indies by two wickets in the second one-day international. Inzamam hooked his 86th ball for his fourth boundary to pull off an exciting victory with 10 balls to spare and helped his team gain a 1-0 lead in the five-match series at Iqbal Stadium here on Thursday.
Earlier, Runako Morton top-scored with 43 as the West Indies were dismissed for 151 in 49.5 overs after being sent in to bat. Inzamam, who was returning from a four-match ban imposed for bringing the game into disrepute during the Oval Test fiasco in August, was scrappy as he took 18 balls to get off the mark and survived a number of appeals before finishing the game. The Pakistan captain added 30 with Younis Khan (24) and another 28 with Abdul Razzaq (17) to stave off a valiant challenge by the West Indies, who fought for each run in a low-scoring affair. Inzamam said it was a hard-earned win.
“It was not an easy pitch and we needed to fight hard to achieve the victory and we were lucky that we were not chasing a big target,” said Inzamam, who won the man-of-the-match award. West Indian captain Brian Lara blamed poor batting for the defeat. “We did fight hard and had we put more runs on the board it would have been a different thing. Bowlers showed that if we had more runs we would have pulled it (off),” said Lara.—Agencies