Dwayne Smith claimed three for 36 to follow up an explosive 32 off 15 balls as the West Indies launched the 2007 Cricket World Cup with a 54-run victory over Pakistan on Tuesday.
Pakistan, chasing the West Indies’ total of 241 for nine off 50 overs, slumped to 187 all out off 47.2 overs.
Shoaib Malik lashed six fours and one six in a topscore of 62 off 54 balls.
The 23-year-old Smith took the key wickets of Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Kamran Akmal to delight a near-capacity crowd of close to 20 000 and claim the man-of-the-match award.
”It’s for my team and we won. That’s what I really wanted,” Smith said.
West Indies captain Brian Lara said it was massive confidence boost for the hosts after being skittled for 85 in a nine-wicket loss last week to India in a warm-up match.
”Our confidence is going to be sky high,” he said.
Daren Powell supplied the wickets of both openers on his way to two for 42. Dwayne Bravo iced the win with three for 42.
Marlon Samuels hit 63 off 70 balls to anchor the innings after the hosts were sent in by Inzamam. The in-form right-hander stroked five fours and three sixes and shared an innings-reviving 91-run stand with Lara.
Ramnaresh Sarwan (49) and Lara (37) gave middle order support before Smith revved up the late innings with three fours and a six.
Lara was excited by the lead roles played by a number of the younger players in the team.
”We’re going to be tapping on the shoulders of some of the younger players if we want to win this World Cup and today … the likes of Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith and all these guys coming through is something special,” he said.
Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq blamed his team’s limp batting for the loss.
”Definitely it’s disappointing because the bowlers really did well to restrict the West Indies to 241 on this track,” Inzamam said. ”But credit goes to the West Indies fast bowlers, they really bowled well.”
Inzamam admitted that the poor performance of the openers was cause for concern.
”We have tried a lot of combinations but have not been successful so far,” Inzamam said. ”We are still thinking about this. Hopefully in the coming matches, the top order comes good.”
And he included himself among the more seasoned batsmen who needed to improve.
”After not playing well, there is some pressure on the batsmen. We have experienced batsmen who can take this pressure and hopefully in the coming matches we do well in the batting also,” he said.
Rao Iftikhar led the Pakistani bowling with a career-best three for 44, while Umar Gul took 2-38 and Mohammad Hafeez returned 2-39.
The West Indies began the defence of a challenging but not overwhelming total emphatically as Powell and Jerome Taylor had Pakistan struggling at 39 for three off 10.3 overs.
Imran Nazir slashed a six over backward point but soon edged Powell to wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.
The experienced Younis Khan also fell to a Ramdin catch as he chased a short, wide ball outside off stump and tried to pull it into the leg side.
Powell also accounted for Hafeez, who drove to mid-on where Lara pouched an easy catch.
Inzamam and Yousuf, with over 600 One-Day Internationals between them, added 60 off 18.3 overs to revive the innings.
But just as they were set for an assault, Smith removed both. Yousuf edged for Ramdin’s third catch, while Inzamam came across his stumps and was adjudged lbw.
Smith removed Kamran Akmal first ball to virtually seal the result. The wicketkeeper sliced a drive to backward point, where Bravo dived forward to grasp the first of two brilliant catches.
Malik provided some late hope from 116 for six, but the tailenders could not supply the necessary support.
Bravo rounded off the match with three wickets, including one superb left-handed return catch to remove Gul. – AFP
