Pakistan seal tricky series win

Cricket365
May 31, 2011

Younis Khan's defiance and Umar Akmal's brazen hitting afforded Pakistan a five-wicket win and consequent two-nil series triumph in Monday's second and final ODI with Ireland in Stormont.

Chasing a testing target after Paul Stirling had carried the Irish to 238 for eight with his the third ton of his one-dayer career, the tourists were awkwardly placed at 148 for four before Khan and Akmal took it upon themselves to seal the deal.

A duck from Mohammad Hafeez and failure to convert good starts into bigger proportions from Taufeeq Umar (31), Azhar Ali (39) and Misbah-ul-Haq (32) required a degree of measure from the match-winning duo before the floodgates were there for the taking.

Veteran Younis and young gun Umar plotted their way through the iffy middle overs before a particularly loose over from John Mooney eased the pressure on the Pakistan twosome, leaving them a modest asking rate across the last five overs of the match.

Alex Cusack and fellow seamers tried their utmost to halt the inevitable, but with too many 'four' balls littering the closing throes, victory for Pakistan was eventually a done deal with all of eight balls to spare.

Cusack did manage the token scalp of Younis for 64 in the last over of the encounter, but by then the damage was already done

For his series-clinching effort, Umar finished on 60 not out from 47 deliveries.

Earlier the right-handed Stirling dug in for the long haul to steer the Irish to a solid but ultimate vain tally.

He tonked seven fours and a quartet of handsome sixes across his 109 runs from 107 balls.

The Irish also enjoyed handy cameos from Cusack (26) and Gary Wilson (33), while spinner Saeed Ajmal was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers with figures of four for 35.

Pakistan won the rain-affected series opener by seven wickets.