Pakistan beat Windies by 5 wickets in first ODI thriller

Multan: Green shirts thrashed West Indies by five wickets in a thrilling game played in Multan on Wednesday.

Babar Azam and Khushdil Shah took Pakistan to exciting win over Windies as last over decided the fate of the 50-over game.

West Indies earlier had set 306 target for Pakistan in first ODI that is being played in Multan. 

Babar’s 103 off 107 balls — his fourth century in the last five one-day internationals — carried Pakistan to 306-5 with four balls to spare for a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Left-handed batter Khushdil Shah survived a couple of close run-outs before smashing four sixes against the fast bowlers to remain unbeaten on 41 off 23 balls.

Shai Hope’s brilliant 127 off 134 had earlier propelled the West Indies to 305-8 after captain Nicholas Pooran had won the toss and elected to bat with the temperature reaching 42 degree Celsius (107 F).

But Babar, the world’s top-ranked ODI batter, perfectly engineered Pakistan’s highest-ever chase in an ODI against the West Indies.

Babar and Imam-u-Haq, who made 65, shared a 103-run second wicket stand after Fakhar Zaman (11) spliced a catch at short cover off Jayden Seales’ short-pitch ball early in the run-chase.

West Indies finished on 305 for 8. West Indies lost Kyle Mayers early but Shai Hope and Shamarh Brooks kept the scoreboard ticking.

The duo added 154 runs for the second wicket and while Mayers fell, Hope carried on. He soon brought up 12th century and also became the joint third-fastest to 4,000 ODI runs.

While Shaheen Shah Afridi bowled well, Haris Rauf and Hasan Ali were expensive. Rauf did pick up four wickets but ended up going for 77 runs in his 10 overs. Shadab was miserly, as he conceded just 37 runs in his 10 overs.

Pkaistan took lead of 3-1.