Imran Farhat hit a half century Sunday
and led Pakistan to an easy seven-wicket victory over a reckless
West Indies side in the third one-day international.
Farhat hit two sixes and five fours in his knock of 58 off 72
balls as Pakistan made 192 for three wickets in 33.4 overs.
Pakistan's target was recalculated to 191 off 35 overs under the
Duckworth/Lewis formula after an hour's play was lost due to
malfunctioning floodlights at Gaddafi Stadium, curtailing the West
Indies innings to 207-7 in 46.3 overs.
Record-breaking Mohammad Yousuf remained unbeaten on 28 while
Shoaib Malik hit the winning boundary and was not out on 21.
``Chasing 190 runs on this track was not easy, but our openers _
especially Farhat played a fantastic innings tonight,'' Pakistan
captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said.
The West Indies' players were inconsistent in their fielding with
Lendl Simmons and Brian Lara dropping catches, and its bowlers
conceded 17 wides.
``We just didn't put the balls in the right areas, you can't bowl
so many wide deliveries,'' Lara said.
Mohammad Hafeez was dropped on 10 by Simmons before the
right-hander went on to score 31 off 43 balls and laid a solid
foundation of 64 runs off 77 balls with Farhat.
Kamran Akmal made a brisk 23 with four boundaries, but was
dropped by Brian Lara in the slips.
Chris Gayle removed both Hafeez and Akmal, but Farhat kept up the
scoring at a decent pace before holing out in the deep off Corey
Collymore.
Earlier, Simmons scored his maiden limited-overs half century
before the West Indies innings was shortened by the loss of light.
The floodlights went off in the 28th over and umpires stopped
play in the 47th due to poor natural light in the day-night game
with 3.3 overs still to be bowled in the West Indies innings.
``We didn't really bowled well today,'' Lara said. ``Definitely
getting 192 off 35 overs on such a seaming track was in our
favour.''
Simmons made 70 off 130 balls with seven fours before he was
bowled by Rana Naved (3-37) in his return spell to become the
seventh wicket to fall.
One ball later, umpires walked off the field due to poor
visibility with thick cloud cover before floodlights were restored
after an hour's delay.
Simmons contributed 61 runs for the fourth wicket with Daren
Ganga (20) off 102 balls and revived the West Indies innings after
Naved's double strike in the first spell.
Left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman (2-33) chipped in with two wickets
in the middle of the innings when he clipped the off-stumps of Ganga
(20) and Runako Morton (7).
The West Indies had a shocking start, losing skipper Lara for a
first ball duck after Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq won the toss
and elected to bowl first.
Lara, who opted to open the innings after Shivnarine Chandperaul
failed to recover from a knee injury for the second successive
match, was trapped plumb lbw by Naved with a full pitched delivery.
Hard-hitting batsman Gayle smashed three boundaries in paceman
Umar Gul's third over and followed it with three more fours and a
big six over mid-wicket in Naved's next over.
Gayle's cameo of 41 runs only lasted 37 balls after Naved had him
lbw in the eighth over.
Inzamam had to rush off the field and got three stitches in his
left hand's little finger when he attempted to catch a rasping drive
of Marlon Samuels at short cover in the 13th over. The Pakistan
captain did not return to the field.
``It's nothing serious and the doctors say I will be fit in
couple of days,'' Inzamam said.
Pakistan leads the five-match series 2-0 with two matches to go _
at Multan (Dec. 13) and Karachi (Dec. 16). The first match was
washed out due to rain at Rawalpindi.
``We've still got two games left and we all are professional,''
Lara said. ``We've got to try and level the series and that's what
we are going to be aiming.''
