London: West Indies are off to a winning start in the Champions Trophy as they ousted Pakistan by two wickets with 56 balls to spare here on Friday. Though Misbah-ul-Haq played a sensational knock of 96 runs and was well complimented by Nasir Jamshed, who scored a brilliant half-century, it wasn't enough as Sunil Narine and Kemar Roach picked up wickets in quick successions which restricted Pakistan to 170.
While defending a mediocre total, Mohammad Irfan gave Pakistan couple of early breakthroughs which shifted the balance in their favour. But a crucial partnership of 63 runs between Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels for the third wicket allowed the Windies to make an impressive comeback.
However, Wahab Riaz and Saeed Ajmal struck in their respective overs to reduce Windies to 4/81 and with likes of Sarwan and Gayle in pavilion, the see-saw affair was looking to go in Pakistan’s favour.
But steady knocks from Marlon Samuels and Keiron Pollard helped the Caribbean to register the win. Later, Dinesh Ramdin and Sunil Narine smashed few boundaries in their 22-run partnership which brought them closer to the victory. However, Irfan brought twist to the tale by undoing Narine, but it was just too late for Pakistan as Kemar Roach smashed a boundary to finish off the match in style in the 41st over of their innings.
Earlier in the match, it was Kemar Roach who gave Windies an electrifying start as he reduced Pakistan to 3/15 after first seven overs. Misbah-ul-Haq and Nasir Jamshed did try their best to reconstruct the innings, but it wasn't easy to bat against the likes of Narine and Bravo. They added 90 runs for the fourth-wicket before Narine picked up the wicket of Jamshed. Thereafter, Pakistan lost the wickets of Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal in the next couple of overs and were reduced to 6/110.
Misbah kept the score board ticking but it wasn’t enough in the end.