Pakistan 308/5
West Indies 309/6
West Indies win by four wickets
This is one way to nail a 300-plus chase, a method no cricket manual, traditional or modern, would recommend. West Indies themselves may have not planned to finish it off this way, but they did. Jason Mohammed played the innings of his life as West Indies clawed their way back into a contest they didn't even seem to be a part of for 35 overs of the chase.
They needed 128 from 13 overs when Jason Mohammed suddenly exploded into life, treating Pakistan's vaunted fast-bowling attack with disdain, as Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz and Hasan Ali were all on the receiving end of hammerings in the slog overs.
When Pakistan realised there was life yet in the contest, Jason Mohammed was one step ahead of everything the bowlers, and an increasingly panic-stricken Sarfraz Ahmed, could throw at him. Ashley Nurse gave Jason Mohammed adequate support towards the end as Pakistan's sizeable advantage vanished before their disbelieving eyes. Before the small Guyana crowd could pinch themselves, their side had beaten Pakistan into submission and romped to their highest-successful ODI chase.
A West Indies win appeared unlikely after Kieron Powell - the only batsman who had attempted to inject any impetus into the West Indies innings in the first half - and wicketkeeper Shai Hope fell within 10 balls of each other. They were both dismissed off quality deliveries, Wahab deceiving Powell with a beautifully disguised slower ball, while Shadab extracted sharp turn and bounce to catch Hope out of his crease while Sarfraz broke the stumps.
While it appeared that the last rites were being read, Jason Mohammad harboured a secret. He thought, naively, that the West Indies could still win. Never mind that they had barely spluttered past second gear all match, or that Pakistan's bowlers had quality to burn, or that the West Indies had never chased a total above 300 in an ODI.
He began by hitting boundaries while looking like he just wanted to have a bit of fun. Pakistan appeared to be taken in for a while, going through the motions, letting the game stroll through to its inevitable conclusion. But then they suddenly looked up: 82 to win off nine overs with six wickets in hand. Nothing about that looked impossible, especially not with Jason Mohammad smelling blood.
Earlier, Pakistan had posted an apparently impregnable 308, breaking the record for the highest innings score at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. Their innings came to life in the last 10 overs - they smashed 92 - after falling away briefly in the middle overs. Their success at keeping wickets in hand, combined with the brilliant ball-striking of Shoaib Malik ensured they went past the 303 that had been the record for this ground.
The groundwork was laid by Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez after Pakistan were put in to bat on a newly laid surface. If Shehzad and fellow opener Kamran Akmal, returning to the ODI side after a four-year gap, were unsure of how the pitch would play, they didn't show it, attacking at every available opportunity, and not afraid of hitting the ball in the air; they added 59 in the first 10 overs.
The pace of the innings dropped off significantly after Kamran's dismisal for a 49-ball 48. Hafeez - surprisingly sent in ahead of the in-form Babar Azam - struggled for rhythm, and seemed to get worse, not better, as his innings wore on, struggling to rotate the strike or even find the middle of the bat at times. No boundary was scored between overs 25.3 and 37 as Pakistan's strike rate slipped below five an over.
Then he suddenly moved from sluggish to sensational in the last third of his innings to somewhat make up for his near lapse. At one stage, he had scored 31 off 53, but smashed 57 of his last 39 balls to finish with an innings-defining 88 off 92. His change in approach coincided with Malik's arrival at the crease, who was instrumental in providing impetus to an innings that had been threatening to stagnate. When he did hole out straight down the ground for 53 off 38 balls, Pakistan were well on course for a total beyond 300 that looked unlikely before his intervention.
But unbeknownst to everyone watching, Hafeez and co. had merely been the warm-up act to Jason Mohammad and Ashley Nurse. The so-called second-string internationals, in the absence of their IPL superstars, were about to put on a second innings show that will live not just long in the memory, but immortally in the record books.
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2nd ODI
Pakistan 282/5 (50.0 ov)
West Indies 208/10 (44.5 ov)
Pakistan won by 74 runs
A career-best unbeaten 125 by Babar Azam, followed by a clinical bowling performance, ensured Pakistan eased to a 74-run win to level the three-match series. Set 283 to win, West Indies wilted early despite beginning the chase with attacking intent. That purposefulness came at the cost of early wickets, with both openers back in the pavilion by the fifth over.
In a bizarre departure from the approach that had been so successful for the home side in the first game, West Indies continued to press on rather than ensure they had enough wickets in hand for the closing stages. Inevitably, they kept losing wickets playing shots that weren't so much attacking as they were rash, and before you knew it, they had slipped to 56 for 5, and the game was effectively over as a contest.
After that, it was left to Pakistan's spinners to asphyxiate what remained of the West Indies' batting line-up. Jason Holder and Ashley Nurse gave the crowd - a large, expectant turnout in the wake of the first game's heroics - some light entertainment with a breezy 58-run partnership, but even as the clouds gathered in the distance, lightning was never going to strike twice, as Hasan Ali finished with 5 for 38.
Even as the game drifted off to its inevitable conclusion, captain Holder displayed his competitive spirit with a fighting half-century, his combination of sweet timing and incredible power making batting look a lot easier than it had seemed when those higher up the order had been in the middle. He gave Shadab Khan the respect he has indisputably earned with his performances over the last fortnight, but was at times disdainful of Pakistan's storied pace bowling attack, never more so than when he dispatched Mohammad Amir for 16 in an over, smashing one six and two fours.
Hasan - who bowled only five overs in the first game - was the pick of Pakistan's pace trio, extracting nippy movement off a good length that particularly ruffled the right-handers. He was the one who ripped the heart out of the West Indies top-order, dismissing Shai Hope and Kieran Powell in quick succession; the one who ended Nurse's spirited resistance, and the one who killed off the last vestige of West Indian hope when he got rid of Alzarri Joseph to end a 52-run ninth-wicket partnership. Fittingly, he was the one who accounted for Holder to seal the win, and a fully deserved five-wicket haul.
Pakistan had earlier posted 282 despite looking horribly unconvincing with the bat for much of the first innings, a late surge ensuring they reached a total they would have gladly accepted just seven overs earlier, thanks largely to Babar. Batting again at No.3 after a head-scratching demotion last game, Babar formed the spine of the innings as batsmen around him struggled to build on starts. He held the innings together when it threatened to disintegrate, and provided the late fireworks when it looked like it might stagnate. A two-paced surface made batting challenging, as did a much-improved bowling performance from the hosts.
This total had seemed well out of Pakistan's reach until the last seven overs - in which 84 runs were scored. It was telling that West Indies' worst spell of bowling came about just as Babar and Imad Wasim finally began to swing freely, to the extent that the crucial last over of the innings was left to medium pacer Jonathan Carter - no one's first choice as a death bowler, or any bowler for that matter. Five of Pakistan's six sixes came off the last three overs - two off the hapless Carter in a 50th over that cost 19.
After an uncharacteristically brisk opening Powerplay during the first ODI, Pakistan quickly reverted to type today, their approach circumspect and their progress sedate. They continued their somewhat retrograde approach in the middle overs, the run rate hovering around 4.50 and, although their failure to accelerate could partly be attributed to the bowlers, it wasn't as if Babar and Mohammad Hafeez broke their backs trying either. Hafeez, who found himself in the slightly unfortunate position of gaining more detractors than supporters after an 88-ball 92 during the first game, can certainly expect more criticism his way today after being stumped down the leg-side for a laboured 32 off 50 deliveries.
Pakistan's innings never seemed to move out of the third gear it had begun in, and just when an almost run-a-ball partnership between Babar and Sarfraz looked like getting them ready for the final push, the captain's leading edge found mid-on. It was after that that Imad and Babar combined, and even they took a while before the innings took off, just as it felt the collective patience of Pakistan's fans worldwide was beginning to creak. The momentum from those late overs continued into the second innings, and Sarfraz certainly wouldn't mind it continuing for two more come the decisive game on Tuesday.
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3rd ODI: Apr 11, 2017 (14:30 BST)
West Indies 233/9 (50.0 ov)
Pakistan 236/4 (43.1 ov)
Pakistan won by 6 wickets (with 41 balls remaining)
A commanding performance to secure a vice-like grip on eighth place doesn't sound like an especially formidable achievement, but it was a much-needed boost off the back of a troubling few months for Pakistan cricket. A 113-run partnership between veterans Shoaib Malik - who reached his ninth ODI century with the six to seal victory - and Mohammad Hafeez enabled Pakistan to canter to a six-wicket win and clinch the three-match series 2-1.
Pakistan's chase of 234 got off to an eventful start, with a first-ball wicket, a nasty collision between Ahmed Shehzad and Babar Azam, a dropped catch at mid-on and a brilliant grab by wicketkeeper Shai Hope all crammed into a lively first six overs. Babar edged Shannon Gabriel into his stumps less than three overs later, and the upshot from a frenetic opening Powerplay was Pakistan had lost three wickets for 45 and, for the umpteenth time, were looking wobbly.
The one positive Pakistan could glean from the situation was that Hafeez and Malik were at the crease together, and with 430 ODIs between them, they represented vast experience, if nothing else. It showed, too, with the pair ensuring they made survival their main priority for the next hour or so amid some testing spin bowling by Devendra Bishoo and Ashley Nurse, and they slowly began to turn the game in Pakistan's favour.
By the time Hafeez holed out to deep square leg, the visitors needed less than 100 to win. Skipper Sarfraz Ahmed then joined Malik at the crease, the pair picking off the poor deliveries with consummate ease in a stroll towards their target. Towards the end, Malik was playing with such ease that he gave himself the chance of a century, which he completed in style with a straight six off Jason Holder. It might not always have been smooth sailing, but in the end, it was unquestionably clinical.
West Indies will rue a failure to take proper advantage of the review system for the second game running. When Hafeez was on 39, Nurse, arguably the most consistent performer for his side all series, spun one sharply back into him, the ball striking the top of his front pad. Hawk-Eye showed it would have been given out on review, but Holder decided against going to the third umpire. It was one among a series of errors West Indies committed in the field - dropped catches playing a starring role once again - and by the time Hafeez was finally dismissed, the telling blows had long since been struck.
West Indies had managed to scrap to 233 despite being squeezed for runs during much of the first half of their innings. Having slipped to 68 for 3 with a run rate well under four, Hope and Jason Mohammed combined for a 101-run partnership - the first three-figure partnership for West Indies this year - to set their team on course for what was at least a competitive total.
The heart of West Indies' innings was stifled by a sustained spell of pressure from Pakistan's spinners, a spell that, in hindsight proved decisive. Imad Wasim was the pick of the bowlers, bolstering his credentials as a genuine ODI allrounder following on from his impressive batting performance in the previous match. He was the major reason for West Indies' sluggishness during the middle overs, consistently bowling on a good line and getting the ball to spin away from the right-handers. Hafeez provided him able support, and their combined bowling figures of 17-1-45-1 aptly told the story of the middle overs.
But even when their run rate slipped to as low as 3.34 runs per over, West Indies had one metric in their favour: seven wickets in hand. Inch by inch, Mohammed and Hope began to climb their way back into the contest, Mohammed launching Hasan Ali for sixes in consecutive overs and setting his team up for the final push.
However, just as the hosts looked like they were eyeing 250, Mohammad Amir and Junaid Khan took over from Shadab Khan, who had an indifferent day with the ball - despite picking up the wickets of Hope and Jonathan Carter - conceding 57 runs in his eight overs. The quality of Pakistan's quicks shone through with a splendid bowling performance during the death overs, the two left-armers regularly landing yorkers with surgical precision that the batsmen struggled to get underneath. Only 29 runs came off the last five overs as the momentum West Indies had threatened to build up was punctured severely. Runs in short supply was a familiar theme for the hosts all evening, culminating in a result they - and their fans - have become all too familiar with of late.
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