Talking about Pakistan’s superb eight-wicket win over West Indies in the first game of the five match One-Day series on Saturday, 23 April, 2011, the skipper, Shahid Afridi said that the team played superb cricket.
"I was very happy when West Indies won the toss and chose to bat because I thought the pitch would help our spinners," said Afridi.
The spinners Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez broke through early by dismissing the openers in quick succession.
Devon Smith was the first batsman who fell lbw to Hafeez after just scoring 17 runs off 31 balls, while Lendl Simmons fell victim to Ajmal’s after scoring 24 runs off 44 balls.
The skipper, Afridi, seemed quite happy with the spinners’ show and complimented them on performing remarkably in the past few months.
On the other hand, the pacer Wahab Riaz, who came into the limelight after his five wicket haul in the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup 2011 semi-final against India, picked two important wickets of Kirk Edwards and Dwayne Bravo.
Windies while batting first, set a target of 222 runs for Pakistan at the loss of six wickets. Bravo was the top scorer of his side, making 67 runs off 109 balls and was run out by Ahmed Shehzad.
Green Shirts took a stable batting start with the openers – Hafeez and Shehzad. Both set a partnership of 68 runs before Shehzad was sent to the pavilion by Devendra Bishoo.
Hafeez scored 54 runs off 45 balls including seven boundaries and one six, he was caught by Darren Sammy off the bowling of Bishoo.
Asad Shafiq and Misbah-ul-Haq set a splendid stand of 134 runs, leading their side to an easy win in 41.3 overs.
Asad scored an unbeaten 61 runs off 76 balls including seven fours. On the other side, the vice-captain scored 73 runs off 90 balls including five boundaries and one six.
Afridi highly praised the openers, Hafiz and Shehzad for their efforts and also appreciated Misbah and Asad Shafiq for staying at the crese till the end of their innings.
West Indies captain Darren Sammy said: "We put ourselves in a hole when we were batting, and the spinners were bowling, so we really have to come better in the next game."
Sammy also added that he was surprised to see the turn and bounce of the pitch and he appreciated the Pakistani cricketers. The skipper vowed that for the next match they will put in more hard work at practice and will come back stronger.
Pakistan started their tour with a Twenty20, which they lost by seven runs.
Both the teams will now face each other on 25 April, 2011, in the second match of the series, at the same venue.
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