Narine and Bravo brothers level series

Cricinfo

Sports Page—Wednesday 17th July 2013–West Indies were unusually generous in the field but their batting showed signs of returning to form and Sunil Narine roared back to his best as they overcame Pakistan in Providence to level the series at one-each. West Indies themselves had been helped by a sloppy effort from Pakistan’s bowlers, who conceded a whopping 38 extras in a low-scoring game.

Darren Bravo provided the stability at the top of the order, and though Pakistan’s naggingly accurate trio of spinners choked the scoring in the middle overs, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard played some big shots towards the end of the innings to lift West Indies to a competitive 232 on a slow surface.

Pakistan’s response was guided by Nasir Jamshed, who was more than compensated for being incorrectly adjudged lbw early in the first ODI. He was dropped three times during his half-century and Johnson Charles fluffed one stumping chance in an ungainly innings that also had several inside-edges and mi hits. Jamshed took forever to get off the mark as Kemar Roach began with four maidens in a row, and was dropped on duck off his 21th delivery. You could feel the frustration and in the next over, he connected with a pick-up shot over midwicket for six to relieve some of the pressure.

His opening partner Ahmed Shehzad failed for the second consecutive match on his comeback, Mohammad Hafeez decided to hit his way back to form before unwisely thinking he could smash Narine over the man at long-on to fall for 20.

Pakistan was left needing 82 off the final 10 overs, which proved too much for Akmal, who finished with a 46-ball 50 to reduce the margin of defeat.

Summarized scores: West Indies 232 for 8 (Darren Bravo 54) beat Pakistan 195 (Jamshed 54, Akmal 50, Narine 4-26) by 37 runs