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Gros Islet, St Lucia, Jul 24 : Hello and welcome for the final ODI of this 5-match series between West Indies and Pakistan at the Beausejour Stadium. The hosts need to win this game to share the series 2-2. They will have to really battle hard today to beat the visitors. It will be interesting to see the playing XIs of both the sides.
Pakistan have won the toss and elected to field
Dwayne Bravo: 'The ball swings early in the morning. If the openers can hang around and give us a start it would be good. 240 is what we are looking at. Hopefully the boys will play to their best and level the series. It is always better to level the series than lose a series. Kemar Roach misses out and Tino Best comes in.'
Misbah: 'We are not sure about the weather and hence we want to bowl first. We need to back ourselves. Use the early moisture to get early wickets and try and chase down the target. It is very important for us to win this series and it will boost the confidence of the team. Asad Ali is back for Wahab Riaz.'
Teams:
Pakistan (Playing XI): Ahmed Shehzad, Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq(c), Haris Sohail, Umar Akmal(w), Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Asad Ali, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan
West Indies (Playing XI): Devon Smith, Johnson Charles(w), Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Bravo(c), Darren Sammy, Sunil Narine, Jason Holder, Tino Best
Match Preview :
Dwayne Bravo's West Indies go into the final ODI of the 5-match series in a do-or-die situation to avoid back-to-back series losses at home. After being blown off by Shahid Afridi in the first ODI, the hosts did well to get their campaign back on track soon after. However, pressure got the better off them in their last two outings, which also saw a tie.
West Indies:
The West Indies batting unit seemed all right in the last game after a series of failures early on. Skipper Bravo has repeatedly underlined the importance of a good display by the top-order to give the extra cushion for the lower-order to work on a solid total. The form of Chris Gayle is a big worry for the hosts as he has managed just 40 runs in 4 games off which 30 came in the last ODI when he came down the order. Barring Marlon Samuels and Lendl Simmons, none of their batsman average more than 22. Against a quality bowling outfit like Pakistan, the West Indies would hope to put up their best batting performance to end the series on a high.
Contrastingly, the bowling unit looks pretty settled. Kemar Roach and Jason Holder have provided the early breakthroughs for the side with the new ball on a regular basis. When it comes to the middle overs, the services of Sunil Narine and the collective efforts of Marlon Samuels and Darren Sammy have been quite handful. The only concern for the side has been their death bowling. Dwayne Bravo, even as he managed to pick up 7 wickets in the series so far, has been leaking runs quite easily which eventually had a direct impact on the side's outcome in their last two games.
Pakistan:
The visitors on the other hand would look to strengthen their record in West Indies. Since a drawn series in 1993, Pakistan have never lost a bilateral series in West Indies. Their captain Misbah-ul-Haq has led from the front with the bat and has already scored three fifties so far. Umar Akmal has played the aggressor's role to perfection in the death overs and is the second highest run-getter for the side in the series. The only concern for them has been the lack of a good opening partnership from Nasir Jamshed and Ahmed Shehzad. The duo have not managed a single 50-run stand with the highest being 39.
The bowling department has been doing quite well for Pakistan with Mohammad Irfan troubling the batsmen with the new ball. Saeed Ajmal, alongside Afridi, has been quite accurate in the middle overs and both have done well to keep the run-rate under check.
Team composition:
It is hard to think that Pakistan would want to disturb a winning combination. However, poor form of opener Ahmed Shehzad could force a replacement. Meanwhile West Indies, who left out-of-form Kieron Pollard, are expected look beyond him once again.
Weather and conditions:
The weather throughout the series hasn't been all that great. A few light showers have been predicted for Wednesday as well. The drainage at the Beausejour Stadium has not been really good. However, the pitch at St. Lucia has been decent and stroke-play becomes a little easy as the game progresses.
Quotes:
'It is great to be scoring runs so consistently but I want to see these runs being converted into victories for the team,' Misbah, after a fine contribution in the last ODI.
Knowing that they cannot lose the series, Pakistan would hope for a good day at the office come Wednesday while West Indies need to put their A' game on display to outsmart their opponents.
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