Pakistan v West Indies, 3rd ODI - 5 Talking Points

Pakistan continued their dominance over West Indies today as registered an easy 136 runs victory to register their consecutive clean sweeps in the limited overs format. Batting first for the third time in the three-match series, Pakistan made an emphatic start but lost steam towards the end to make 308/6 in 50 overs. Babar Azam and skipper Azhar Ali starred with the bat scoring centuries.

West Indies, in response, were yet again shabby with the bat and got rolled over for just 172 in 44 overs to lose the match and also give away the series. Opener Kraigg Brathwaite (32), Jason Holder (26) were the only men who got starts. rest other were rattled effortlessly. Denesh Ramdin with his snail – paced 37* batted tried fighting for a while.

But, with the run rate climbing upwards and no wickets falling at regular intervals, his efforts were never going to be enough to take his team past the winning line. Pakstan bowlers were simply too good for west Indies to handle.   

1.Red hot Babar Azam:

Babar Azam today became the third Pakistan player and eighth overall to score three consecutive ODI centuries as he top-scored for Pakistan with a 106-ball 117. He batted at a superb strike rate of 110.37 during his fantastic innings which constituted of 8 fours and 1 six.

This record-breaking knock also put him in the company of some of the most elite batsmen like his country’s Zaheer Abbas, Saeed Anwar, South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock, and New Zealand’s Ross Taylor are others to achieve the milestone.

No player ever has made their career’s first three hundred in successive innings before Azam. For Pakistan, Inzamam-ul-Haq is the only other player to bring up his first two centuries in consecutive innings.

2. Skipper back in form:

Ali, who failed in the first two games with a first-ball duck and nine, today went crack an entertaining century. This knock will surely bring a lot of relief to him after all the backlash he had to face from the critics after a string of poor performances.

West Indies clearly had not seen this coming. After giving a healthy start bating with Sharjeel Khan for an 85 run opening wicket stand, Ali continued with the same momentum and forged a match-defining stand of 147 runs for the third wicket to corner the opposition completely. His superb knock studded with 8 fours and 1 six also made him the first Pakistan player to hit three ODI tons as captain.

3. Anti-climax:

There was a sort of anti-climax in the match during the last 10 over of the Pakistan innings. West Indies broke the 3rd wicket stand when Jason Holder bowled Azhar for 101 off 109 balls. Azam and Ali put on a run-a-ball 147 and laid a strong foundation, leaving the side 232 for 2 in the 39th over by the time the partnership was broken

But, West Indies, from here on began to claw back into the game and successfully restricted Pakistan for a score which was less the predicted total. West Indies gave away only 69 off the last ten overs and kept Pakistan to 308 for 6

The middle order flunked badly but the run rate remained healthy as Azam kept accumulating runs. However, once he departed off the last ball of the 46th over by Kieron Pollard, Pakistan slumped badly. Pakistan were 280 for 4 with four overs remaining at the time of his dismissal and could add only 28 off the last four overs. The late anticlimax brought by West Indies bowlers ensured that Pakistanis were never able to charge towards the end.

4. West Indies batsmen incompetent:

The West Indie side continued to be incompetent with the bat in the series. their lack of intent has already made Pakistan sure shot favorites to clean sweep the Test series as well. A target in excess of 300 is always tough but the West Indies had the names capable of mauling down the target with ample overs to spare. But, unfortunately, none of those reputed names fired today.

The top order crumbled badly. Only opener Kragg Brathwaite (32) could help himself in getting started. But, unfortunately, he could not guide him by converting the start and was dismissed soon. Denesh Ramdin and Jason Holder hung around for a while but all they could do was to delay Pakistan’s victory to some extent. There a no scope for them to save the match against the disciplined Pakistan bowling attack.

5. Pakistan qualifies for automatic selection: 

By virtue of this fantastic 3-0 clean sweep, the Men in Green have now overtaken the West Indies in the ODI rankings and become the number eight ranked side.

This one place ranking promotion has successfully made them eligible for an automatic selection for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Pakistan was behind West Indies sitting at the 9th position before the of the series as now leapt ahead of West Indies who were nine points ahead prior to the start of the series.

Host England plus the other seven highest-ranked sides on the ICC ODI team rankings on 30 September 2017 will qualify automatically for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

The bottom four sides on the ICC ODI team rankings plus six sides from the ICC World Cricket League will play in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018. The top two sides from this event will complete the 10-team line-up for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.