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Pakistan beat Windies by 15 runs

Pakistan defeated the West Indies by 15 runs in the first match of the three-match DMC Trophy at the Toronto Cricket and Skating Club yesterday.

The victory represented a positive return for Wasim Akram, the former captain who was reinstated earlier this week after being cleared by a Pakistani-government-appointed commission that was investigating match-fixing.

Akram, who seemed to be well short of top match fitness, had very little influence on the game: he didn't bat, bowled his 10 overs and picked up just one wicket, dropped a very simple catch and was off and on the field on numerous occasions. But he did redeem himself somewhat when he was involved in an important run-out when West Indies looked like they would challenge Pakistan's total.

After the match, he voiced his pleasure at being back in the Pakistani team after the distractions of the past few months and declared his confidence that, on their day, Pakistan can beat any team in the world. Akram indicated that he wasn't nervous ''because he had off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq in his team and nobody was going to hit him for a winning total.''

While Saqlain played a key role, Pakistan owed its victory to a series of mistakes by West Indies bowlers and batsman.

When Pakistan batted, there were 43 extras -- indeed, extras represented the second-highest score.

Included in that extras total were 23 wides and 10 no balls -- or 33 free runs for Pakistan. And the Pakistani victory was also helped by a last three over dash by its batsman: of those three overs, they scored 30 runs, with 19 coming in the ultimate over. Fast bowler Mervyn Dillon was the main culprit, with 28 runs coming off his last two overs.

Bad running between the wickets by the West Indies batsman also contributed to the Pakistani victory. Their batsmen were involved in three run-outs, with the run-out of opening batsman Sherwin Campbell (who made 69, his third half-century in four matches in the Toronto Festival of cricket) being the most critical.

Before the current three-match series against Pakistan, West Indies played three matches against India and were beaten 2-1. Campbell was the bedrock of the West Indies innings and had reached 69 (off 107 balls in 161 minutes) before he ran himself out.

At the time, Campbell was batting with captain Brian Lara. The captain played the ball behind point, and Campbell kept running toward the striker's end after Lara decided that there wasn't a run in the shot. That run-out at 133 came 34 runs after relative newcomer Wavell Hinds ran himself out after failing to respond quickly enough to a call from Campbell.

Hinds was out of his ground by a couple of metres after a direct hit from the fielder Yousuf Youhana. The third run-out occurred when tailender Hendy Bryan was short of his ground following a fine piece of fielding by Akram.

The Pakistani total was built around an opening partnership of 131 runs, the highest opening stanza in one-day internationals by Pakistan against the West Indies and only the third opening partnership of more than 100 runs against their Caribbean-based rivals.

Saeed Anwar was in brilliant form, hitting 63 runs off 96 balls in 129 minutes. The elegant left-hander, who attacked everything that was pitched short and on leg stump, hit nine boundaries in his innings. His opening partner, Syed Wajahatullah Watsi, was more subdued, hitting 40 runs off 88 balls in 145 minutes.

After losing three wickets for 16 runs, Pakistan solidified things somewhat thanks to a 40-run partnership between a slimmed-down Inzaman ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana. Eventually Pakistan reached 230 for the loss of six wickets when its 50 overs was up.

West Indies were in trouble very early: Ridley Jacobs was leg before to Waqar Younis for four with the score at 9. In the same over, both Campbell and Ricardo Powell, promoted to No. 3 because of his fine display of hitting against India on Wednesday, were both dropped.

Both would have been simple catches, but the effort by its fielders showed that Pakistan, which had a 15-day camp coming into this tournament, was rusty after its drubbing in the recent World Cup final at the hands of Australia.

For a time, the West Indies looked like having a chance to win the game, but a combination of great fielding by Pakistan and bad batting by the West Indies brought them down. Lara was out to a sensational catch at mid on by substitute fielder Hassan Raza. Lara hit a full-blooded pull shot, and Raza dived to his left to catch the ball inches from the ground.

Commentators and West Indies supporters remain puzzled why Lara, the best batsman in the team and one of the best batsmen in the world, bats so low in the order and bats behind the younger and more inexperienced batsman.

The bad batting occurred when Shivnarine Chanderpaul -- who along with Adams had made 43 in 5 overs -- tried to hit Saqlain out of the ground only to fall to a great running catch by Waqar Younis. It was a shot that he didn't have to play, given that the West Indies had scored its target run-rate for the over.

Ultimately, the West Indies ran out of time, but the result could had been different had the West Indies bowlers been less generous with the no-balls and wides and had they been a little more prudent and disciplined in their batting.

Scoreboard

Pakistan
S. Anwar b dillon 63
W. Wasti c Chanderpaul b Adams 40
A. Sohail c & b Adams 8
Inzamam c Hinds b Dillon 24
Y. Youhana c Jacobs b Walsh 25
M. Khan run out (Dillon) 1
A. Mahmood not out 25
A. Razzaq not out 0
Extras (lb10, w23, nb10) : 43
Total (for 6 wickets, 50 overs): 230
Fall of wickets: 1-131, 2-141, 3-147, 4-187, 5-190, 6-209
Bowling: Walsh 10-0-44-1 (2w); King 10-2-38- 0 (1nb, 10w); Bryan 10-1-32-0 (7w); Dillon 10-0-65-2 (1nb, 2w); Hinds 3-0-22-0 (2nb, 1w); Adams 7-1-19-2 (2nb).

West Indies
S. Campbell run out (Mushtaq) 69
R. Jacobs lbw Younis 4
R. Powell b Razzaq 12
W. Hinds run out (Youhana) 16
B. Lara c sub (Raza) b Akram 20
S. Chanderpaul c Younis b Sohail 29
J. Adams not out 35
H. Bryan run out (Akram) 4
M. Dillon b Mahmood 7
R. King st Khan b Mushtaq 1
C. Walsh not out 0
Extras (lb5, w12, nb1): 18
Total (for 9 wickets, 50 overs): 215
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-31, 3-99, 4-133, 5-138, 6-177, 7-189, 8-211, 9-215
Bowling: Younis 8-0-44-1 (3w); Akram 10-0-41-1 (1nb, 2w); Razzaq 10-2-26-1 (3w); Mahmood 10-1-55-1 (5w); Mushtaq 10-2-30-1; Sohail 2-0-14-1.

UNI