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A record-breaking all wickets partnership of 193 runs by Nathan Astle and Stephen Fleming set New Zealand up for a thrilling National Bank series win over Pakistan in Dunedin today.It was hard to believe that New Zealand had struggled all summer to fulfil an opening stand of any quality.The pair, long standing batting partners from their earliest days with Canterbury, dominated a Pakistan attack, including some fiery moments when Shoaib Akhtar managed two or three of the fastest overs seen in the country for some time.Akhtar limped out of the bowling attack after bowling only five overs, most of the last over being delivered off a short run up as he once again struggled with a thigh muscle injury. He came back for 4.1 overs and bowled off a short run.The New Zealanders bettered the all wickets stand of 180 made by Ken Rutherford and Adam Parore set against India in Baroda in 1994/95.Along the way they dusted off the opening record of 158 set by Martin Crowe and John Wright against Bangladesh in Sharjah in 1989/90 while they also passed the 153 achieved by Astle and Mathew Sinclair against Zimbabwe in Wellington in January.Fleming said the side knew from the outset of the summer that Pakistan would be a tough series to win and to come through and win 3-2 had been a good test of character.”We’re delighted. It is nice to have something on the board for the work we’ve been doing,” he said.”It was very important to get wickets at the end and stop them short of 300. We did that in Nairobi and we did it again here.”It was a great wicket again,” he said.New Zealand suffered a hiccup in the latter stages of its chase when losing three wickets in five balls for one run. But Chris Harris and Jacob Oram added 38 runs for the seventh wicket with Oram hitting a six of the first ball of the penultime over to wrap up the win.Pakistan twice had the chance to put New Zealand on the rack with the bat – but they fluffed it both times.At 90/1 off 15 overs and with Shahid Afridi threatening to launch into even more of an assault than he had already achieved while hitting 50 off 40 balls.But the wily Chris Harris undid him at the right time from New Zealand’s point of view, having him caught at the wicket by wicket-keeper Adam Parore for 65 scored from 55 balls.It featured some thrilling hitting and the runs came quickly after he had got over a poor patch of playing and missing at the start of his innings.Pakistan was then required to rebuild and it took its time. Just when Abdur Razzaq and Yousuf Youhana began to up the tempo, Fleming brought back Daryl Tuffey for his second spell and he had Razzaq chasing a rising ball which Parore held.Youhana and Imran Farhat formed an unlikely combination, given Farhat’s poor form earlier in the series, and they added 68 off 73 balls.At 225/3 in the 42nd over, Pakistan, with Yousuf in full cry, looked to be set to score more than 300, but Craig McMillan’s belated arrival at the bowling crease for the over concerned saw Yousuf out, leg before wicket for 68, and set in train a string of events which saw Pakistan all out three balls short of the 50 overs for 285.Moin Khan hit out superbly for a 20-ball 36 but as McMillan found the sort of bowling form at the death New Zealand has been looking for all summer, he gained a suitable ally in Jacob Oram and four wickets fell in nine balls.It was a fine effort in pulling back a side on the loose and made New Zealand’s chase that much easier.Pakistan captain Moin said the 285 was a good target to defend.”They played really well, they deserved to win. We missed a few catches in the beginning and there was pathetic fielding from our side today.”We tried our best but we didn’t bowl to the targets today.”We were 20-25 runs short in the end.”We will have to come back hard if we want to win the Test series. We have to learn from our mistakes,” he said.

An undermanned South Australia was locked in a tight battle with WA at stumps on day two of their Pura Cup match.The Redbacks were 5-229 in reply to Warriors captain Simon Katich’s bold declaration at 7-346 with Shane Deitz (53no) and Mike Smith (2no) at the crease.But the Redbacks may as well be an extra wicket down after opener David Fitzgerald (4) suffered a fractured cheekbone from a Brad Williams bouncer. The former West Australian retired hurt after the Williams’ delivery jagged back and crashed into the side of his helmet.He was taken from the WACA ground to hospital for an X-ray and was unlikely to bat again in the match.Both teams will be looking to conjure up a large outright victory in the next two days to give themselves a shot at making next week’s final.Meanwhile, evergreen WA quick Jo Angel (2-29) continued to close in on Terry Alderman’s record of 384 wickets as the second highest wicket-taker in domesticfirst class cricket.The 33-year-old needs just three more scalps to pass Alderman and also become WA’s leading wicket-taker in Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup history.Opener Ben Johnson (2) was the first Redback to fall just before lunch with the ball cannoning off his bat into the stumps off Angel’s bowling.Fitzgerald left the playing field in very different circumstances following the third ball after lunch which struck him on the helmet.Blewett and Chris Davies then put on 79 for the second wicket before Davies (42) fell to a brilliant catch by Marcus North at first slip off Brad Hogg’s (1-14)bowling.Nathan Adcock (18) didn’t last long before quick Matthew Nicholson (1-56) removed him but captain Greg Blewett (64) lingered at the crease after he was given out leg before for Angel’s second.And Young (36) fell late in the day when he chipped a ball to Michael Hussey at midwicket off North’s (1-56) bowling.Katich earlier closed the Warriors innings straight after Chris Rogers (101no) brought up his maiden Pura Cup century.But the 24-year-old was fortunate to make a ton after surviving a very confident caught behind appeal off Johnson’s bowling on 93.He and North (111) put on 144 runs for the fifth wicket to ensure the Warriors posted the 300-plus score.North only added eight runs to his overnight score before he attempted to glance the ball through slips once too often and found Young for Smith’s (2-82) secondwicket.The Redbacks looked to be getting back into the match just seven runs later when returning quick Paul Wilson (2-98) dismissed Hogg (4).But Rogers and Nicholson (10) then put together 37 runs before the paceman fell to Johnson (1-12).

ScorecardDarren Stevens took five wickets for 35 runs against his former club as Kent kept their promotion hopes alive with a resounding 147-run victory over Leicestershire. Kent set Leicestershire a target of 283 in 68 overs, but 36-year-old Stevens sent the Foxes tumbling to defeat in a devastating 14-over spell.Mark Davies claimed three wickets and Charlie Shreck two as Kent closed the gap on leaders Derbyshire to stay in contention for promotion with two games to play. Kent, who picked up 21 points from the win, are at home to Derbyshire next week and then away to Glamorgan in the final fixture of the season.There was a bizarre start to the day with the Leicestershire batsmen Matt Boyce and Josh Cobb facing just one ball before skipper Matthew Hoggard declared still 179 runs behind. It was clear an agreement had been reached on a runs chase, and Kent responded by closing their second innings at 103 for 2 off 22 overs – setting Leicestershire a target of 283 in 68 overs.On a pitch still giving some assistance to the bowlers it looked a tough challenge for the hosts, and they could not have made a worse start. Davies had Michael Thornely caught behind in the third over and Shreck removed Will Jones in similar fashion in the next, leaving the hosts at 7 for 2.A grim situation did not improve when Ned Eckersley was brilliantly caught at cover by Matt Coles off Davies with the total 17. But if Leicestershire thought things could not get any worse they were wrong. Stevens was brought into the attack and his naggingly accurate medium-paced seamers ripped through the hosts’ middle order.In a nine-over spell before tea he picked up four wickets for 27 runs. Stevens trapped Cobb lbw with a delivery that nipped back, had Shiv Thakor caught low down at slip, uprooted Wayne White’s off stump and then ended some stubborn resistance from Boyce, who made 23 off 80 balls before being caught at midwicket.Stevens struck again in the first over after tea with Rob Taylor becoming another lbw victim. Jigar Naik provided some late resistance, top scoring with 33 before falling leg before wicket to Davies and Shreck clinched victory by having Alex Wyatt caught at short leg.

Ian Ward’s hunger for runs looks inexhaustible after he made another doggedcentury at St George’s today, putting England A in a strong position to earnvaluable points against Guyana in the third round Busta Cup match.Following on from his century against Trinidad and Tobago last week, theSurrey opener grafted for seven and a half hours to finish on 118 as EnglandA were bowled out for 413.While Ward provided the ballast, three more half-centuries from Aftab Habib,young James Foster and Chris Schofield blew the wind into England A’s sails,steering them through another steaming hot day in Grenada.Habib was on 36 when he resumed this morning and his elegant and timelessstrokemaking provided one of the highlights of the day as he negotiated theGuyanan spinners with consummate ease. He was dropped on 48 but afterreaching his second half century of the tour, came down the wicket to CarlHooper, lofting the ball straight to Eion Katchay at long off.By then Ward had reached his own milestone. His century came off 321 ballsof which just five found the boundary rope and he was content to eke out theruns while his partners were more flamboyant. Guyana used just two spinnersfor much of the session but a change in the attack, with leg-spinner RonMatthews introduced in the 29th over of the morning brought instant results.With his third ball, he dislodged Ward’s middle stump with a ball that keptlow and another mammoth innings was over with the score 293 for five. Theselectors’ decision to involve all the players who had not yet played meantthe rest of the order was short of experience so the next passage of playbefore and after lunch proved vital.New boy James Foster, the 20 year-old student who was brought into replaceChris Read to keep wicket, gave his compatriots a happy surprise with anexhibition that from the outset looked promising. He watched carefully,pushed contentedly at non-scoring balls but was quick with his feet wheneveran opportunity arose.

He rattled up a quick half-century and with Chris Schofield added 72 for thesixth wicket before being bowled by Ramnaresh Sarwan with a ball that nippedback. If he impresses with the gloves, his place in the side for the fourthround match against Barbados is virtually assured after such an impressivedebut.Neil McGarrell had bowled 42 overs in the innings before he struck lucky andit was a real stroke of luck when the umpire responded positively to anappeal for a catch that came off Paul Franks’ arm. The off-spinner foundhimself on a hat trick when Ryan Sidebottom drove loosely at his next balland was bowled, but had to deliver another ten overs before wrapping up theEngland A innings having Schofield stumped by Vishal Nagamootoo for a sting-in-the-tail 66.It was a confident show from England A’s younger contingent who gaveselectors little cause to worry at going into this important match with suchan array of callow faces.The confidence shown by new ball attack Jonathan Lewis and Ryan Sidebottom,who had not yet bowled on tour, was less evident as both erred with theirfront foot, resulting in Guyana adding eight runs to their total beforestumps but their hostility and accuracy was impressive and Lewis was unluckyto finish the day with just one wicket, his victim Nicholas de Groot caughtat first slip by Vikram Solanki.By the close, Guyana were 28 for one but the day belonged to Ward, who yetagain exhibited credentials that should stand him in good stead when Englandselectors start casting their net for a replacement for Mike Atherton.Afterwards, he described his innings as `functional’ but not `aestheticallypleasing’.”If you achieve success as a result of hard work, good preparation and afair amount of thought, then it is very satisfactory. The runs have not comequickly and I haven’t been in the best of nick.”Nick is about playing to your strengths, seeing the ball, timing it rightand moving your feet and while it all worked for me in Trinidad, but herefrom ball one, the rhythm and timing wasn’t quite there. The wicket didn’thelp.”But it is pleasing to me that I can still get runs without being in thebest of nick. The innings was functional – certainly not aestheticallypleasing to anyone watching. It goes back to game plans – I looked at thepitch and assessed that the ball would not come on very well. It was goingto be two paced and we decided we would have to bat a lot of overs to scoreruns and through stubbornness and a refusal to give my wicket away, I wasable to achieve that.”

Tasmania
ScorecardTasmania surged to a 48-run victory over South Australia in a rain-shortened domestic one-day match in Burnie, as Ed Cowan and Ben Hilfenhaus made striking contributions.Cowan’s 91 at No. 3 allowed the Tigers to set a decent target despite the loss of regular wickets, and the total was bolstered a little more by Duckworth-Lewis calculations.SA’s reply was unsettled the moment the visitors lost the captain Michael Klinger to Hilfenhaus, and regular wicket ensured they would never mount a serious chase despite 66 for the in-form Tom Cooper.Hilfenhaus finished with four wickets while Xavier Doherty managed two.

England’s jetlagged batsmen and a handful of second-tier West Australians will spend the next week hopping around in the WACA ground nets and the middle after the touring captain Alastair Cook foreshadowed a willing battle between Steven Finn, Chris Tremlett and Boyd Rankin for his side’s final Ashes bowling spot.With Tim Bresnan in the latter stages of his recovery from a back injury that is unlikely to allow him to be considered for the first Test, Finn, Tremlett and the former Irishman Rankin will have the bounciest practice and playing surfaces in the country on which to state their cases. Each must try to sway Cook, the coach Andy Flower and bowling mentor David Saker into a decision on who will share pace duties with James Anderson and Stuart Broad.Following England’s first training session of the trip, Cook said his side’s plans to make the most of the bounce on offer in Australia had been conveyed clearly enough by the selection of the tour party, but it was now up to the bowlers chosen to press their cases. Apart from their height in common, Finn, Tremlett and Rankin all have slightly differing stories and attributes: temperament and stamina will be under scrutiny in addition to bowling skill.”It’s quite clear to see that Jimmy and Broady have done enough over their fantastic careers to be first-choice bowlers,” Cook said in Perth. “We tend to play three quicks and a spinner, so there is one space up for grabs. It’s pretty clear for everyone to know that and people have to stick their hand up for selection. If they do really well in these couple of warm-up games in the opportunities they get they’re going to put their name ahead.”Finn and Tremlett were each part of England’s triumphant 2010-11 tour, part of a pace attack that improved with every Test match despite Anderson being the only constant throughout the series. Having begun the tour as the third seamer, Finn was dropped after Perth as his wickets were deemed to have come at too great a cost. Tremlett, in contrast, graduated from a reserve berth to part of the quick-bowling triumvirate in mid-series, and by its end was arguably England’s most threatening bowler.

Gurney second left-armer called up

England have announced that Harry Gurney, the Nottinghamshire left-arm seamer, will be the second player outside the Ashes squad to join them in Perth to aid preparations for the Test series following Tymal Mills call-up.

Gurney, who has not represented England at any level, took 44 wickets at 30.31 in the County Championship during the 2013 season.

“We don’t have any left-armers in the squad and there’s a possibility we’re going to face a couple of left-armers in the Ashes series,’ Alastair Cook said. “You can do as much replication of it with throw-downs and bowling machines but [you want] the real thing of bowling left-arm and getting your angles right.

“That’s the reason they’ve come over here, it’s great practice and experience for them but they’re very much there to bowl at us.”

Rankin is the lesser known entity of the three, having switched allegiance from Ireland to England in order to pursue Test ambitions. He has turned plenty of heads on limited-overs duty for his adopted country, but must now show he has the ability to sustain his hostility and accuracy over the longer spells Cook will demand of him in the Tests.”We think pace and bounce will be quite crucial on Australian wickets. I think that’s quite common. Very, very skillful shorter bowlers can have success but, in general, pace and bounce is quite key,” Cook said. “[Rankin] gives us that option, he obviously hasn’t played a Test match or been around the Test match environment before, so interesting to see how he goes, but I think the next four days might be quite interesting with him, Finny and Broady all bowling.”England’s preparation will closely mirror that of three summers ago, the one change being that their tour matches against WA and New South Wales teams will be head-to-head with rounds of the Sheffield Shield, thus weakening their opposition. Cook said his men would take what they could from the success of the previous trip without resorting to facsimile.”It’s very similar to what we did last time in 2010,” he said. “That should give you enough time in the middle and some miles in your legs for the bowlers. We’ve got a long build-up for it and I think you need that for such an important tour.”I think we’d be foolish not to look back on what we did on that tour and what we did very well. But you’ve got to remember this is a different side now. Things have evolved. We’ve got different players, different personnel as well. We can look at the right things we did there and try to replicate them but we can’t just copy it outright, because our side is different.”

ScorecardFile photo: Dimuth Karunaratne hit 271 runs at 90.33 in the series•Getty Images

Ramith Rambukwella was impactful with ball and bat, as he drove Sri Lanka A to a series victory against New Zealand A, in the deciding unofficial ODI in Dambulla. New Zealand A scored 274 for 9, after Rambukwella’s 4 wickets for 30 leashed the middle order, and curbed promising partnerships partnerships.His 36 from 29 then swung the chase definitively in Sri Lanka’s A’s direction, who surpassed their opponents with three wickets in hand and nine balls to spare. Dimuth Karunaratne also hit his fifth consecutive score above 50 – three of which had come in the one-dayers, for which he won the player of the series award. He hit 271 runs in the series – almost twice as many as the next-best batsman – averaging 90.33.Rambukwella’s offspin accounted for four wickets in succession between the 15th and 32nd over, after Suranga Lakmal and Sachithra Serasinghe had struck once each, early in the innings. Colin Munro hit the only half-century for New Zealand, put on 74 runs for the fifth wicket with Luke Ronchi – the largest of the innings – before Rambukwella removed them both in quick succession.His burst had left the visitors struggling at 169 for 6, but New Zealajd A recovered through Andrew Ellis, who hit 46 not out from 42 and Ronnie Hira, who struck 30 from 23. The pair hit 60 runs for the ninth wicket in 41 balls.Sri Lanka A’s seam bowlers had an expensive day again, as Shaminda Eranga went at ten an over during this three overs, and Lakmal managed little better, conceding 49 from his 6 overs – though he also took two wickets.Kusal Perera provided another lightening start to the hosts’ innings – albeit a briefer one than he had provided in the previous match, as he hit three fours and a six in a 25-ball 16 before being bowled by Adam Milne.Karunaratne hit only seven fours in the innings, but progressed busily too, hitting 70 from 78, having forged a 110 run stand with Dinesh Chandimal along the way. Chandimal’s demise for 48 and Angelo Perera’s fall soon after left the hosts with 97 to win from 92 balls and five wickets remaining, but Rambukwella’s salvo and a fine finishing innings from Ashan Priyanjan, who hit 47 from 40, secured the match for the hosts.Milne and Ellis took two wickets apiece for New Zealand A, but their spin bowlers were unable to emulate the efficacy of Sri Lanka A’s slow-bowlers.The match brought New Zealand A’s difficult tour of the subcontinent to a close. They had drawn two four-day matches with India A, before being whitewashed in the one-dayers, and they have now lost both the first-class and List A series against Sri Lanka A.

ScorecardKane Williamson stood out on a tough day for batting•Getty Images

With the correct mindset, if the Championship is lost, Yorkshire and Middlesex are still engaged in a worthwhile, cut-and-thrust contest for second place. It is worth a few bob and Yorkshire, in particular, need every penny they can lay their hands on.Yorkshire are well placed to achieve it as well after despatching Middlesex in clinical fashion, claiming an 82-run lead on first innings after removing Middlesex’s last seven wickets for 42 in only 13.5 overs. If a dire forecast proves accurate, there will not be much progress on the third day. But perhaps there is no need to cut costs by introducing brawn sandwiches at the tea interval quite yet.It is not entirely true that no-one remembers runners-up. At least it offers the chance to grumble inconsequentially: “We came second that year,” and come up with a plausible excuse or two, something you can’t really do if you finish third. But essentially it feels like failure and satisfaction at progress made has an emptiness about it.It was impossible to watch events unfold at Headingley without reflecting on the fact that 90 miles to the north, in Chester-le-Street, Durham were closing in on their third title in six years, a title which both of these counties had at one point of the season imagined might be theirs.In May, Middlesex had momentum, a strong seam attack and a redoubtable pair of open batsmen in Chris Rogers and Sam Robson making light of weaknesses elsewhere. In midsummer it was Yorkshire, 10-1 outsiders at the start of the season, who felt that a first Championship for 12 years was in range. But ever since Durham outplayed Yorkshire three at Scarborough three weeks ago, their hold has been unshiftable. It would need a miracle to change that now.Around Headingley, words of praise for Durham’s captain Paul Collingwood, a former England regular who chose to end his days back in county cricket, and do much good as a result, are commonly heard.Seam bowlers dominated affairs at Headingley, just as they were doing at Chester-le-Street, revelling in a spicy, mid-September pitch, a blessed relief for the fast bowlers’ union after a long, hot summer. Of the 20 wickets to fall so far, 16 have fallen to catches to wicketkeeper or slips. On the second day alone, there were ten wicketkeeper catches. There have been club practice sessions that don’t produce as many catching opportunities as that.John Simpson and Jonny Bairstow both finished with six catches apiece, with Bairstow’s Yorkshire half-dozen only one below the record set by his father, ‘Bluey’, against Derbyshire in 1982. Bairstow tweeted his delight last month after discovering one of his dad’s England tour bags in the loft. The connections remain, discovered through a son’s developing career.But the keepers’ catches have, by and large, been routine, a support act for the bowlers. What Tim Murtagh and Corey Collymore achieved for Middlesex, Ryan Sidebottom and Steve Patterson replicated for Yorkshire. Bowlers’ run-up marks sunk menacingly into the lush, green outfield, tracks so deep that they made a statement, insisting that they would prove irresistable.Patterson can rarely have looked more threatening for Yorkshire. Years dropped off Sidebottom with every over; Jack Brooks’ low catch at long leg to dismiss the last man, Ollie Rayner, left him with 4 for 27. Sidebottom, who is involved in contractual negotiations with Yorkshire, is launching his cricket academy this week, in conjunction with his father, Arnie, and both can teach a lot about bloody-minded persistence on the hard days and how not to waste the opportunity when conditions are in your favour.Until Yorkshire’s bowlers quickened the pace of the game, Headingley was a maudlin place to be. There was little prospect that the Emley Moor transmitter, visible these days from the top of the new pavilion, would be broadcasting news of victory to the good folk beneath before the week was out. Only the diehards remained, spattered by the showers that studded the first two sessions.Yorkshire began the second day at 109 for 3, but never threatened to achieve the sort of total to haul in the catch of batting bonus points they needed. But they could point to the match’s singular batting performance, that of Kane Williamson, who battled gamely for four-and-a-quarter hours for 52 before he became one of two wickets for Middlesex’s debutant Tom Helm, a tall, gangling pace bowler and England Under-19, who certainly looked worth an end-of-season chance.Williamson was signed up in late season by Yorkshire to help win a Championship. He has not managed that, but after a duck on debut he has made fifty in every completed innings. This one was as demanding as any.Williamson is as immersed in long-form cricket as Eoin Morgan, not required by Middlesex for this match, seems divorced from it. It would have broadened Morgan’s cricketing education to contend with conditions like this, a reminder of the game in all its forms, but if the yearning does not seem to be there, whether it to Alex Hales at Nottinghamshire or Morgan at Middlesex, it is understandable if a county’s interest begins to wear thin. It is a waste and English cricket is much the worse off for it.

The Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League has been postponed for the sixth time this year, and will now commence on September 10. The tournament was scheduled to begin on September 3, but has been delayed by a week due to a request from the participating teams, the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) said.”We are in the final stages of preparing the itinerary. The complete schedule will be circulated to the clubs soon,” CCDM Chairman Jalal Yunus said. “The teams had requested us to give them some time for coordination and training, and all things considered we felt that September 10 should be an ideal date to start the league.”The league, a 12-team one-day competition under the jurisdiction of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), is Bangladesh’s premier 50-overs domestic competition. The “player by choice” transfer program for the tournament was held on August 25, with 161 players recruited by the clubs.The tournament was initially penned in for March this year, but has run into several roadblocks. First, it was pushed back because Bangladesh were touring Sri Lanka and the clubs wanted the national players present, then a players’ strike in late May forced the BCB into declaring that the league would begin in early July. In June, the BCB postponed it again in the aftermath of the news of alleged corruption in the Bangladesh Premier League after BCB president Nazmul Hassan admitted to being unsure about holding the league while the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit’s report on the alleged corruption was still pending.It was deferred for a fourth time in the last week of July, with the Dhaka clubs reluctant to take part in the recruitment programme before Eid-ul-Fitr that was in the second week of August. Before this latest delay, the BCB had announced their domestic schedule for the 2013-14 season on August 5, with the league scheduled for an early September start.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsUmar Akmal’s late burst gave Pakistan enough to defend•WICB Media

Umar Akmal’s 46 off 36 gave Pakistan the final surge to take them to 135, which their bowlers made look like 185 on a slow, dry and used pitch to give them the Twenty20 series to go with the ODI spoils. Pakistan threatened to leave Ahmed Shehzad’s platform of 44 off 46 to waste, but Akmal did just enough – with 38 in the last four overs – for the bowlers, who were soon all over the West Indies batting.Sohail Tanvir’s extra bounce accounted for Johnson Charles and Marlon Samuels, Mohammad Hafeez got Chris Gayle for the second time in two afternoons, and before you knew West Indies were 17 for 4. A strategic promotion for Sunil Narine injected some life into the chase as he scored 28 off 16, Kieron Pollard gave them late hope with 23 off 10, but they were fighting too much quality.After Charles edged Tanvir to Akmal, Gayle’s horror home season continued as he fell to a leading edge; since his century in the first ODI of the tri-series earlier in the season, Gayle has not crossed 30 in 10 international innings, and has averaged 10.2. Samuels got a bit of a brute that kicked at him just outside off, and took the gove. Lendl Simmons soon played for a Shahid Afridi legbreak, but it didn’t turn and took the middle stumps.As Dwayne Bravo fought hard, Narine swung merrily, and enjoyed some good timing and some good luck. The two added 47 in 5.3 overs, and brought the target down 72 off 39. Pollard took time to get going, and by the time he decided everything needed to go as West Indies needed 62 in four overs. Over the next four balls, he brought out some savage hits against the 34-year-old rookie Zulfiqar Babar, losing two balls and scoring 20 runs. Babar, though, went over the wicket, and managed to get the outer edge, which still carried to deep cover. Immediately, he got rid of Bravo, who also wanted to go over the off side but found long-off.In those two balls, the brief life in the chase had frizzled out. Not even a shambolic no-ball call – for the cutting the side crease – could make any difference. In contrast, Pakistan might not have had any such spells of brilliant hitting, but they stayed around the six-an-over mark before going for the big runs in the end.West Indies seemed to have learned their lesson from having failed to defend 152 in the first game. They didn’t give Pakistan any pace to hit. When the visitors ended the Powerplay at 39 for 1, it was the last time their run rate would reach 6.5 before Akmal’s hitting in the 19th over. They had to fight a controlled West Indies effort throughout.Shehzad, who scored 44 off 46, found little support from the other end. Hafeez, opening in the absence of the dropped Nasir Jamshed, was caught on the late cut again. Umar Amin was done in trying to drive on the up. Haris Sohail swung before he got used to the pace of the pitch. Shahid Afridi hit Narine into the strong wind and in the air. Shehzad perished trying to pull Pollard, who had dug the ball in and provided no pace to go with.At 96 for 5 in the 16th over, it seemed Pakistan would struggle to get to a defendable total, but Akmal kept them in the game. Most of his good work came in the 19th over when Bravo went round the stumps and angled the ball across Akmal with little cover on the cover boundary. He was taken for a four and a six in the 16-run over, but Narine ended his good spell with just six runs in the 20th. As it turned out, Akmal had done enough damage by then.