Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Narine’s four wickets helped the West Indies tie the series

After suffering their largest loss to Pakistan and recording their lowest total at home during the first ODI, the West Indies were hungry for redemption and they got it thanks to the outstanding effort of spinner Sunil Narine.

Narine’s unbelievable bowling figures were well supported by Darren Bravo’s innings of 54, which helped the West Indies post a defendable score.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq won the toss and elected to bowl first as he wanted to utilise the “little bit of moisture” on the pitch.

Pakistan pace bowler Mohammad Irfan provided a breakthrough immediately, dismissing the dangerous Chris Gayle for just one run.

Gayle’s opening partner, Johnson Charles made a solid start to his innings, but threw it away as he was removed by Shahid Afridi for 31.

Bravo held the West Indies innings together while the wickets continued to tumble around him, but just after he recorded his half-century, Bravo was cleaned up by spinner Saeed Ajmal.

Ajmal and Afridi continued to wreak havoc amongst the West Indies batsmen and soon West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo was the only credited batsman left standing.

Bravo helped the West Indies post a score of 232 after a brilliant innings of 43 off 52 balls, which included five boundaries.

The spin duo of Ajmal and Afridi both picked up two wickets apiece, while Irfan and Asad Ali each snapped up one wicket.

Chasing just 233 runs to win, Pakistan lost opener Ahmed Shehzad early, while his opening partner Nasir Jamshed looked to be in a whole different class.

Despite Jamshed continuing to dominate with the bat, his team-mates fell like dominoes and soon Pakistan found themselves in a world of trouble as they had lost most of their top and middle order batsmen.

However, Jamshed and Umar Akmal’s half-centuries brought Pakistan right back into the game.

But, soon after making their half-centuries, both Jamshed and Akmal were dismissed, leaving Pakistan in a highly vulnerable spot.

This allowed Narine to take full advantage and he easily mopped up the tail, which led to Pakistan being dismissed for 195 runs, leaving them 37 runs short of their target.

Narine was the star of the West Indies bowling attack with four wickets, while Dwayne Bravo picked up two wickets and Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels and Kieron Pollard all snapped up one wicket apiece to level the series at 1-1.