BEAUSEJOUR, St. Lucia, CMC- Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi scrambled a single off the penultimate ball as Pakistan won the fifth and final One Day International against the West Indies by four wickets to win the series 3-1 at the Beausejour Cricket Ground here yesterday.
Pakistan ended on 243 for six off 49.5 overs in reply to West Indies 242 for seven posted off 50 overs.
Opener Ahmed Shehzad led the way for Pakistan with a topscore of 64, his second One Day International half century against West Indies and third overall.
Shehzad shared a third wicket stand of 59 with his captain Misbah-ul-Haq and 51 for the first wicket with Nasir Jamshed.
Shehzad struck eight boundaries off 100 balls before falling to a running catch to long on by Dwayne Bravo as he attempted a pull off Tino Best.
Man-of-the-Match and Man-of-the-Series Misbah-ul-Haq was the one to steer his team home with a knock of 63.
When he offered a catch to Dwayne Bravo at mid wicket off Jason Holder Pakistan needed just one run to win the match.
The Pakistan captain struck five fours and one six and faced 93 balls.
He featured in a crucial fifth wicket partnership of 66, with Umar Akmal.
Akmal, who contributed 38 had survived a review for caught behind off Tino Best.
He was later caught at long off by substitute fielder Kemar Roach off the same bowler when rain interrupted the match temporarily with Pakistan on 226 for five with 14 deliveries remaining.
Tino Best finished with three for 48 from 10 overs with a wicket each going to Jason Holder and Darren Sammy.
West Indies had earlier posted a total of 242 for seven off their 50 overs thanks mainly to a 53 run seventh wicket wicket partnership between Dwayne Bravo 48 and Darren Sammy 29 not out and a third wicket stand of 54 between Johnson Charles and Marlon Samuels.
Bravo and Sammy’s effort proved to be the most crucial for the West Indies when they came together at 170 for six after 44.1 overs.
Bravo’s 48 came off 27 deliveries with five boundaries and three sixes while Sammy’s undefeated 29 was off 18 balls.
Charles and Samuels were not at their fluent best, Samuels needing 89 balls for his 45 while Charles used up 71 in getting 43 – both going to attempted swats in the deep off Mohammad Irfan.
Other useful knocks came from Lendl Simmons 25 and Chris Gayle who got 21 batting at number five, second successive time in the series.
Junaid Khan with the wickets of Devon Smith (7), Darren Bravo (9) and Gayle finished with the best figures of three for 48.
Irfan had two for 34 from 10 overs and Saeed Ajmal two for 57, also from 10.
