Pakistan in West Indies

Originally posted by zuhair_abbasi That's great news Spinny!!! Subah bakhair!! and khush amdaid (wlecome) - the Iranian thing is not known as Urdu - that is Persian but Urdu does use a lot of Persian word. Great to know that Spinny - hopefully some day when Windies travel to Pakistan - I would love to have you here in my country!! Good luck with your Urdu learning mate.

ah! you are doing really great spinny!!! spot on on a lot of things there!!! recently a family has moved in in our locality, muslim family from Jamaica pretty good in hindi and urdu, their native place is India and they have become very good friends of my wife, unfortunately they are going back to Jamaica next month.

Misbah was indeed the difference in the end, he played Bishoo superbly.  Bishoo is indeed going to turn out fine, he already spins the ball plenty.  Gave Misbah a Warnesque delivery, but the bounce was too much that it could take out the stump.

West Indies could be doing better, than xi combination is quite poor to be honest.  Ideally, you want 5 batsman, 1 all rounder, 1 keeper, 1 spinner and 3 fast bowlers.  Yesterday the Windies added another bowler and it's the closest they've come so far in the ODI series.  YOu must always play a good bowling attack.  You can always pack your batting, it won't save you defeat in the shorter format.  Maybe you might draw a test match with it as the only consolation!

congratulations to Pakistan on winning the series, their 2nd bilateral series win in a row. Misbah was indeed the difference in the end and I was also impressed with the way Hammad played in his very first innings at international stage. Both Wahab and Ajmal were very good with the ball, PAK need to be focussed and try to win all 5. 

well the way Gayle has been batting in the IPL, I must say PAK will be happy he is not playing in this series.

Two things Mikey, number 1, Chanderpaul doesn't have one gear, Chanderpaul can switch gears better than anybody, i've witness it time and time again but for the last few years, Shiv has stop doing that and as they say, he just bats for himself now because it really doesn't matter, the result is always the same.  Shiv has one of the fastest test centuries, and that too against Australia in their rampant days!

I would agree with Mikey there, I think Benn still should have been in the side because his performance in the WC was pretty good. WI have recalled Sarwan by the way and that I think is a good move. Finally they'll have some dependable batsmen in their middle order.

there was a time when WI batting line up would read
as
Chris Gayle
Wavell Hinds
R sarwan
B.Lara
S.chanderpaul
M.samuels
D.Bravo

you had, in one-days,7 decent Batsmen and adding another wicketkeeper batsmen would make them as good as they come.

there you had Lara who is a great,Chanderpaul who was among the most consistent batsmen,Gayle- no introduction needed, R.Sarwan,Lara's deputy, used to be looked upon as a great in the making, had the next best average after Bevan at one time.

then you had Hinds who hit 3 centuries against the mighty Austalian in their prime,i have seen him treated them greats in utter disdain during that 2003 one day series that saw him hitting consecuitive 100s .His sixes used to be so clean when he scooped them straight, why was he demoted to the middle order is beyond me,a Ganguly,a Tendulkar or a Sehwag in the middle order are not the same players as they were/are as opners in ODIs.

then you had M.Samuels who was considered as a prodigy and another great in the making, by the astute Steve waugh,who as a symbol gave him his lucky red handkerchief or whatever it was ,to make him remember himself.

whatever happened to a batting line up like that must have been nothing short of a tragedy.

Originally posted by spin wizard ...  The pitches don't help fast bowlers either so sometimes a guy can have a bit of fast bowling skills but the pitch negates it.

 Hmmm Sounds like the West Indians going the East Indian way.

 And ah yes those memories of Wavell Hinds still fresh in my mind. Its the worst ,for a fan, when you know that a player hasn't lived up to the billing.

Asad Shafiq is a good addition to the Pakistani team Sam, he's not your usual wreckless Pakistani batsman, a bit like Misbah.  Hafeez is playing brilliant at the moment too, he's playing magnificent strokes.

I'm a bit disappointed at the defeat, but I was expecting WI to win somewhere down the line. Rain helped but the cannot take anything away from the WI, they have played good cricket in the last two games and deserved this win. Hopefully the last game too will be a competitive one.

Congrats to Pakistan on winning the series 3-2, the scoreline might look close but it was only after Pak had won the series that allowed some space for WI to claw back.That said, I am really impressed with WI second string  putting up a fight. Looks like WI's future is on right track.

 Pakistan batting finally implodes, after swimming against the tide for the first four ODI's. Suppose it was always on the cards but Pakistan has done well to keep it down to just one game.