JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, CMC – Career-best bowling from Gavin Tonge helped the depleted West Indies side pose a stiff challenge before Pakistan held their nerve to outclass them by five wickets in the ICC Champions Trophy yesterday.
Tonge finished with a career-best four wickets for 25 runs from his allotment of 10 overs, as West Indies – predictably – failed to successfully defend a modest target of 134 in the second match of the competition.
The match was brought to an anti-climatic end with 117 balls to spare, when Tino Best delivered his fifth wide of the innings down the leg-side to Shahid Afridi, who was leading Pakistan in the absence of Younis Khan – sidelined with a finger injury.
West Indies next face defending champions Australia on Saturday at the same venue which also stages their final group match next Wednesday against the current World No. 2 India.
West Indies are fielding a depleted squad for the competition, after efforts to resolve a long-running contracts dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players’ Association proved futile.
They were expected to be manhandled by Pakistan, but Tonge, bowling fast, full, and straight, was virtually unplayable – like the Pakistan bowlers earlier – on a typically hard, bouncy Wanderers pitch, and the contest became far more competitive.
He struck twice before and after the interval, then Dave Bernard Jr scalped Misbah-ul-Haq to leave Pakistan 76 for five in the 23rd over.
West Indies however, could not sustain the effort, as Man-of-the-Match Umar Akmal struck 41 not out from 51 balls and added 58 – unbroken – for the sixth wicket with Afridi to navigate the winners to safe harbour.
Greeting by the helpful pitch, West Indies strangely chose to bat, and crashed to 47 for seven in the 15th over.
But Nikita Miller struck six fours and one six in the top score of 51 from 57 balls to inch West Indies to a final total of 133 all out from 34.3 overs.
Only two other West Indies batsmen reached double figures – Darren Sammy made 25 and Devon Smith got 18 – as Pakistan’s bowlers exploited the pitch to gain appreciable seam movement.
Mohammad Aamer collected three for 24 from seven overs for Pakistan whose Umar Gul snared three for 28 from eight overs, and Saeed Ajmal bagged two for 16 from four overs.
Tonge then rattled Pakistan early, when he removed their openers Imran Nazir for five and Kamran Akmal for the same score, as the Asian side reached 35 for two from 10 overs at the scheduled interval.
But the 26-year-old Tonge bowled Nazir in the second over, when he spectacularly extracted the opener’s middle-and-leg-stumps, and then had Akmal caught behind for the same score four overs later, when the Pakistani wicketkeeper/batsman – opening the batting – flirted with a delivery outside the off-stump.
Tonge could have poached a third scalp before the interval had Sammy held a low catch, diving to his right at second slip, when Pakistan’s most accomplished batsman Mohammad Yousuf was one in the eighth over.
After the interval, Tonge added the scalps of Shoaib Malik for 23 and Yousuf for the same score to leave Pakistan 61 for four in the 16th over.
Tonge had Malik caught behind in the 14th over, and he gained a fortuitous verdict from umpire Steve Davis of Australia to have Yousuf caught behind down the leg-side in his next over.
Bernard added to West Indian optimism, when he found the edge of Misbah’s bat and wicketkeeper Chadwick Walton held his fourth catch of the innings, but Pakistan’s penchant for imploding failed to surface.
Earlier, the batting again let the depleted West Indies side down, and either their lowest total of 54 in ODIs or 80 in this competition appeared to be a distinct possibility early on.
But Miller, who reached his 50 from 51 balls, when he turned Afridi into mid-wicket for a single, added a valuable 38 for the eighth wicket with Sammy, and put on 36 for the ninth wicket with Tino Best in a late flurry that helped West Indies avoid the embarrassment.
West Indies were set back from early, when Dale Richards was caught and bowled for one off Aamir from the last ball of the first over.
Andre Fletcher was caught at square cover for seven off Rana Naved-ul-Hasan in the fourth over, and Travis Dowlin was caught behind off Aamir in the following over to leave West Indies in strife at 14 for three.
West Indies captain Floyd Reifer joined fellow left-hander Smith at the crease an
d they succeeded in stemming the fall of wicket, but four wickets fell for 11 runs in the space of 26 balls to leave the Caribbean side in tatters.
Smith was caught at second slip off Gul fending an awkward short, rising ball in the 11th over, Bernard was comprehensively beaten and bowled for six by Aamir in the 15th over, Reifer was caught at first slip guiding a short, lifting ball from Gul, and Walton was lbw for a duck to Gul playing across the line off successive balls in the 15th over.
But Miller and the rest of the tail wagged, and the weakened West Indies side walked away with their heads held high.
