Babar ton blows Windies away
Pakistan recorded an emphatic 74 run victory against The West Indies in Guyana to level the ODI series at 1-1 with one match to play.
Babar Azam stroked a classy unbeaten century that formed the backbone of Pakistan’s score of 282 for 5.
No other batsman could pass fifty but there were good contributions from Imad Wasim (43*) and Sarfraz Ahmed who hit 26 at a run a ball.
Openers Ahmed Shehzad (5) and Kamran Akmal (21) fell cheaply as Shannon Gabriel and Alzarri Joseph struck early.
Babar and Mohammad Hafeez (32) settled things down really well and helped Pakistan rebuild their innings on a wicket that wasn’t quite as good for batting as the strip from the first ODI.
Hafeez enjoyed a second chance after he was dropped on the boundary by Jason Mohammed but the West Indian would have had to do brilliantly to hold the chance.
Babar held everything together so well and struck six off the final ball of the innings taking his total to 125 not out.
Imad provided plenty of aggression at the end and his 43 came off just 35 balls.
Pakistan’s seamers made early inroads into the West Indies batting with the hosts slipping to 56 for five.
The West Indies hero in the first ODI fell victim to the spin of Hafeez having scored just 1 after a string of West Indies batsmen failed to crack 20.
Jonathan Carter (12) was trapped leg before by Hafeez to leave the West Indies in all kinds of trouble at 76 for 5.
Jason Holder and Ashley Nurse (44) put on 58 for the seventh wicket before Hasan Ali trapped the latter leg before to claim his third wicket.
Devendra Bishoo (16) couldn’t stick around long enough to allow Holder to get the West Indies close, when he was trapped leg before by Shadab Khan the hosts were 156 for 8.
Holder would go past fifty and record his highest ever career score but his efforts would be in vain.
Hasan Ali would wrap up the victory by picking up the wickets of Joseph (15) and Holder to end with career best figures of 5 for 38.
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