Pakistan finds Rose a thorn

KINGSTOWN, APRIL 13. Fast bowler Franklyn Rose posted career-best figures to lead West Indies to a morale-boosting 96-run triumph over Pakistan at Arnos Vale in the fourth match of the Triangular 2000 Trophy limited-overs cricket series here on Wednesday.

Rose, named man of the match, ended with five wickets for 23 runs from 10 overs as Pakistan was bundled out for 117 in 41.3 overs, replying to West Indies' 213 for seven in 50 overs.

Only vice-captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, with an unbeaten 51 off 94 balls that contained four 4s, showed any resolve for the Pakistanis, whose next match is against Zimbabwe at St. George's on Saturday.

On a hard, true pitch and against one of the leading sides in the world, West Indies' total looked quite modest, but once new-ball bowlers Curtly Ambrose and Reon King restricted the Pakistanis to 16 for two in the 12 overs they shared, the battle was always going to be uphill.

Ambrose had teenage opening batsman Imran Nazir caught behind with the last ball of the first over and King accounted for the dangerous Shahid Afridi when he was caught at mid-off off the first ball of the 10th over.

Change bowlers, however, have been the bugbear of West Indies in recent times, but Rose, in particular, and Nixon McLean, playing in front of his home crowd, did not let Ambrose and King's work go waste.

Rose captured three wickets in the space of eight balls to knock the wind out of Pakistan's sails and put West Indies on the road to its first win over Pakistan in seven matches.

Younis Khan was caught at mid-on with the second ball of Rose's third over and, three balls later, Yousuf Youhana flicked a catch low to mid-wicket where Wavel Hinds came up with a splendid catch.

In Rose's next over, Abdur Razzaq played-on a short-of-a-length delivery to leave Pakistan 41 for five in the 20th over and there was to be no comeback story for last year's World Cup finalist.

Inzamam and captain Moin Khan fought gamefully to post 47 for the biggest stand of the innings, but once Moin top-edged an ambitious pull at a short-ball off Rose to give wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs his second catch, the result was only a formality.

Earlier, West Indies found scoring difficult after choosing to bat as captain Jimmy Adams led the way with 50 off 87 balls. He and Wavel Hinds shared 84 for the third wicket to give the West Indies innings some body after it skidded to 54 for two in the 17th over.

Opening batsmen Philo Wallace and Sherwin Campbell gave West Indies a useful start of 49 in 13.2 overs by seeing off the new- ball attack of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. The first bowling change brought an immediate setback when Wallace was bowled by leg-spin bowler Mushtaq Ahmed for 21 off 38 balls.

Campbell was caught at first slip by Inzamam-ul-Haq off Abdur Razzaq, but Adams and Hinds, 39 off 82 balls, battled away against accurate bowling from the Pakistanis led by Razzaq (two for 30) and off-spinner Arshad Khan (two for 38).

In the final 10 overs, however, West Indies lost five wickets for 76 runs trying to push the scoring along.

- AFP

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