Nawaz-Talat stand takes Pakistan over the line in first ODI
One debutant and another playing only the second ODI of his career shepherded the visitors' chase to give them a 1-0 lead
One debutant and another playing only the second ODI of his career shepherded the visitors' chase to give them a 1-0 lead
Commentator: Ekanth and Danyal
Quite a lovely game that. Ebbed and flowed, had a few turning points before conditions - despite not playing out as expected - had a definitive say. WI could still have pulled out a close win but it wasn't to be. Great signs for the series and a good advert for ODIs this. Danyal's report will be up here soon, do check it out. We'll see you back in a couple of days. On behalf of him and our scorers, Thilak Ram and Harshith Gowda, it's goodbye for now.
Mohammad Rizwan, Pakistan captain Hussain and Hasan deserve full credit. We had some doubts about selection due to the clouds, the whole match could've been washed out. We didn't take advantage of the new ball. Shaheen was good at the death bowling. Our bowling needs to improve, WI batted in tough conditions. The ball gripped but we couldn't restrict them till the death. (Law change - keeping one ball after 34 overs) Bowlers were really happy as the ball reversed late. It was a different feeling and a fun one at it.
Shai Hope, WI captain Tough to play in conditions like this, toss had a big part. Maybe we could've got more runs. The spin threat they have, we have to find ways to negate that. Credit to our bowlers for fighting at the end. We needed to score more in the middle overs. It was challenging but we understood how it'd be late in the game with the wet ball. We needed a cushion and didn't get it. Motie kept things tight, nice to see Chase do some damage. But all in all, we're still one step behind.
Hasan Nawaz, POTM I believed in myself. Knew I could finish here like I do at the PSL. The plan was to stitch partnerships. At the start, the spinners were great, but once the dew came in it got easier. I was fully confident I could clear the boundary. The plan with Hussain was for him to charge the spinners and me to take on the pacers and it came out nicely.
Sam L: "Surely MoM for Nawaz. If PAK had lost wickets in the final 10, it would have been game over. Great to see an ODI with scores below 300 :)"
Ravi: "It will be very interesting to see who gets man of the match. Will it be Nawaz for his steady 60 on debut, or will it be one of the established pair of Afridi or Naseem?"
10:23pm Big smiles on Rizwan, Babar's faces as they congratulate the unbeaten pair. They turned a chase that looked all but gone. Dew aided them as did a dropped catch but for two inexperienced batters to move the chase after losing their captain is quite the feat. WI were ahead for a large part of the chase. Seales was excellent up top. Touch unlucky to not have more. Blades was raw, didn't find his line but was better at the death. Babar and Shafique saw off a tough period before the latter fell to a nip-backer from Shamar. Babar then eased along with Rizwan before being undone by a pearler from Motie. Motie was great but had a lesser impact after dew. Chase was brought in late and didn't have much of a role. The ones and twos kept coming as Salman got a start too. Pakistan got four forty-plus stands in the end, the last one was 104.
This should be done within this over
One debutant and another playing only the second ODI of his career shepherded the visitors' chase to give them a 1-0 lead
Hosts face a tricky path to 2027 ODI World Cup while Pakistan will bank on their returning big names to fire