The Solid knocks from Hasan Nawaz and Mohammad Rizwan’s fifties have helped the side to post a five-wicket victory in the first ODI game against the West Indies at Trinidad.
Apart from the duo, Babar Azam and Hussain Talat’s knocks also played a crucial role in the side’s win on Friday. By the win, the visitors secured a 1-0 lead in the ODI series of the Pakistan tour of the West Indies 2025.
After putting West Indies to bat first, Pakistan restricted the hosts for 280 runs in their innings.
Brandon king and Evan Lewis opened the innings while Shaheen Afridi opened the bowling attack. Despite King’s dismissal for 4 runs, Lewis and Keacy Carty made a 77 run knock for the second wicket.
Carty went on to score 30 runs while Lewis went on to score 60 runs before being dismissed by Sufiyan Muqeem and Saim Ayub respectively.
With Rutherford’s dismissal for 10 runs, Hope brought in stability smashing 55 runs off 77 deliveries before being dismissed Shaheen Afridi.
Roston Chase went on to smash 53 runs off 54 deliveries before being dismissed by Naseem Shah. With Gudakesh Motie’s 31 runs in the middle order, West Indies went on to score 280 runs in 49 overs.
Shaheen Afridi picked four wickets while Naseem Shah went on to bag 3 wickets, with Saim Ayub, Sufiyan Muqeem and Salman Agha went on to pick 1 wickets each.
In the pursuit of chasing 281 run target, Saim Ayub and Abdullah Shafique opened the innings while Jayden Seales opened the bowling attack.
Despite Ayub’s cheap dismissal for 5 runs and Shafique’s dismissal for 29 runs, the middle order went on to shine with Babar Azam, Rizwan, Hasan Nawaz and Hussain Talat went on to make crucial knocks to march towards victory.
Babar Azam went on to score 47 runs off 64 deliveries while Mohammad Rizwan posted a fifty scoring 53 runs off 69 deliveries.
With Salman Agha got dismissed for 23 runs by Roston Chase, Hasan Nawaz and Hussain Talat remained unbeaten to help the side secure 5-wicket victory.
Debutant Hasan Nawaz was named as the Player of the Match. Speaking on the post match conference, he said, “Feeling really blessed to play this knock on my debut. The plan was to build a partnership and the spinners were getting the ball to grip initially which is why we didn’t take our chances.”
“The plan was that Talat can target spin and I can handle pace and the plan worked well for us,” he concluded.
The second ODI match of the series will be played on August 10 at Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Trinidad.
