Samuels leads West Indies win!

Fourth one-day international, Multan: West Indies 212-3 (34.5 overs) beat Pakistan 209 (49.5 overs) by seven wickets.
Scorecard
Marlon Samuels repaid the faith of the West Indies selectors with his second one-day century as they beat Pakistan by seven wickets in Multan.

The Jamaican struck a six and 17 fours in his 100 not out off 99 balls as they reached 212-3 with 15 overs to spare.

Pace bowler Daren Powell claimed 3-33 as Pakistan were bowled out for 209.

And the result was never in doubt after Samuels and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (60) put on 141, but Pakistan still lead the series 2-1 with one game to go.

Samuels was on 62 when Chanderpaul was caught at deep fine leg off Mohammad Sami but skipper Brian Lara allowed him the majority of the strike and he duly reached his hundred with successive fours off Abdul Razzaq.

His only previous century came four years ago against India at Vijaywada and he had not passed 50 in a one-day innings since 2003.

Once the celebrations were over, Lara asserted himself in the next over with a six and a four off Rao Iftikhar Anjum to finish things off.

"Today's effort was exceptional...I am proud of the performance of my team," said Lara.

Both sides were without key players and Pakistan had to rely on Razzaq as their fourth-choice captain because Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf were all unavailable. They also rested chief strike bowler Umar Gul.




West Indies, meanwhile, made three changes to the side beaten in Lahore last Sunday in the hope of keeping the series alive ahead of their final tour game in Karachi, bringing in Powell, Chanderpaul and spinner Dave Mohammed.

They made an excellent start as Powell knocked back Shahid Afridi's off stump as he played across the line and then tempted Imran Farhat (13) into giving a catch to gully.
The exciting Shahid Afridi lasted only six deliveries.

All-rounder Dwayne Smith then had Mohammad Hafeez caught at second slip and trapped Shoaib Malik lbw for a duck with an inswinger to leave Pakistan in disarray at 47-4.

Yasir Hameed repaired the damage with the help of Faisal Iqbal (30) and Razzaq (33) before he was caught off Mohammed's left-arm wrist spin for 71 in the 41st over.

There was a late flurry from Rana Naved, who made 18 off 13 balls, but Pakistan's total did not look enough providing West Indies made a reasonable start in reply.

In fact, they failed to do so because Naved bowled Chris Gayle for nine and accounted for Lendl Simmons lbw with the next ball in his opening over.

But no-one else could match that penetration and Iftikhar and Razzaq, in particular, came in for some rough treatment from Samuels, whose straight driving and leg-side strokes were a feature of his innings.

Razzaq conceded 51 from six overs and Iftikhar's figures were even worse, 0-56 from 5.5 overs, as Samuels and Lara wrapped up the win.

"We didn't put enough runs on the board and Samuels later took the match away from us with some extraordinary hitting," Razzaq commented.