FAISALABAD, Dec 7: A fabulous, unbeaten 42 by skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq inspired Pakistan to a nail-biting two-wicket win over the West Indies in the second One-day International here on Thursday.

Inzamam’s defiant innings, which took a marathon 152 minutes, rescued Pakistan from a hopeless 90-5 to steer them to a narrow win after the hosts had made heavy weather of a modest target of 151 set by the West Indies at the packed Iqbal Stadium. The burly Multan-born batsman survived a number of leg before appeals in his dogged knock and saw several teammates departing at regular intervals before cracking the winning boundary off Jerome Taylor in the 48th over.

Pakistan made a disastrous start when opener Mohammad Hafeez was dismissed on the very first ball of the innings off the ever-improving Taylor. Hafeez failed to read the well-pitched delivery and edged it to wicketkeeper Ramdin who held the first of his five catches.

Medium-pacer Corey Collymore then put Pakistan in further trouble with two quick blows. He first had Imran Farhat (17, three fours) edging a sharp one to Runako Morton who grabbed an absolute ‘blinder’ at third slip, and then deceived Kamran Akmal (22 off 40 balls) with a slower one to have him caught by Dwayne Smith at point. Pakistan 50-3.

Inzamam and Younis came together at this crucial stage to add a valuable 30 runs to the score before Younis misread Taylor and was caught by Ramdin for a brisk 24.

It was Shoaib Malik’s turn to join his skipper who struggled in the initial stages of his innings - the four match ICC-ban clearly telling on him – before opening his account after 18 balls. Shoaib, however, failed to make an impression at the crease and fell to left-arm medium-pacer Ian Bradshaw who had him caught by Ramdin for 6.

Experienced all-rounder Abdul Razzaq (17 off 37 balls) and Inzamam steadied the innings a bit but when the score was 118, the former fell prey to the Ramdin-Colleymore combination with his team still requiring 34 for victory.

Sensing the situation at hand, Inzamam hit two consecutive boundaries off Samuels to release some pressure and both were absolute gems that crashed into the fence in a flash. But there was more thrill to come for the fans who enjoyed their first ever game here under the floodlights. With the score at 130, Rana Naved was trapped leg before by Samuels and while debutant Abdur Rehman provided some support to his skipper at the crease for 21 tension-filled minutes, he became fiery Taylor’s third victim for a personal score of 7.

Rao Iftikhar joined Inzamam at 147 for 8 and, although, he survived some anxious moments in the middle, the winning boundary settled the issue in Pakistan’s favour.

Taylor was the pick of the West Indies capturing three for 39 in two hostile spells of faast bowling. He got admirable support from the ever-accurate Collymore who also bagged 3-19.

Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and put the tourists in on a wicket which hampered natural strokeplay from the outset. The West Indies, playing without prolific batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul who missed the game due to a strained left knee, made an appalling start when young Lendl Simmons and the dangerous Chris Gayle returned to the pavilion without scoring, thanks to impressive spells from new ball pair of Umar Gul and Rana Naved who bagged one wicket each. Gayle’s brilliant catch in the slips by Inzamam drew thunderous applause from the large crowd.

The West Indies innings was then steadied by all-rounder Marlon Samuels (37) and Daren Ganga (21) who took the score to 48 before Rao Iftikhar had the latter caught at mid-off.

However, it was the tragic runout of champion batsman Brian Lara (14) which really took the sting out of the West Indies innings. The skipper failed to beat a sharp throw from Shoaib Malik as he attempted to return to the crease after a mix up with Smith who had called for a suicidal run.

A lively seventh-wicket stand of 57 between top-scorer Runako Morton (43) and Denesh Ramdin (23) enabled the West Indies to eclipse their lowest total of 103 against Pakistan at Melbourne in 1996-97, but they failed to put up a challenging total on the board for the hosts.

Morton cracked four boundaries in his innings before he was caught at mid-wicket by Younis Khan off Rana Naved. Debutant left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman celebrated his entry into international arena by taking two wickets in two consecutive overs, removing Samuels and Dwayne Smith with some clever bowling.

Rana finished with two for 32 but it was once again Umar Gul who stood out with with fine figures of two for 19 in 9.5 overs. Inzamam was deservedly declared Man of the Match for his match-winning innings.

Scoreboard

WEST INDIES:

L.M.P. Simmons c Kamran b Umar Gul 0

C.H. Gayle c Inzamam b Naved 0

D. Ganga c Inzamam b Rao Iftikhar 21

M.S. Samuels c Younis b Rehman 37

B.C. Lara run out 14

D.R. Smith lbw b Rehman 0

R.S. Morton c Younis b Naved 43

D. Ramdin run out 23

I.D.R. Bradshaw run out 3

J.E. Taylor b Umar Gul 1

C.H. Collymore not out 1

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-6) 8

TOTAL (all out, 49.5 overs) 151

FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-2, 3-48, 4-72, 5-76, 6-79, 7-136, 8-148, 9-150.

Bowling: Umar Gul 9.5-2-19-2 (1w); Rana Naved-ul-Hasan 10-1-32-2 (4w); Rao Iftikhar 8-0-40-1 (1w); Abdul Razzaq 7-1-17-0; Abdur Rehman 10-2-20-2; Mohammad Hafeez 5-0-21-0.

PAKISTAN:

Mohammad Hafeez c Ramdin b Taylor 0

Imran Farhat c Morton b Collymore 17

Kamran Akmal c Smith b Collymore 22

Younis Khan c Ramdin b Taylor 24

Inzamam-ul-Haq not out 42

Shoaib Malik c Ramdin b Bradshaw 6

Abdul Razzaq c Ramdin b Collymore 17

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan lbw b Samuels 1

Abdul Rehman c Ramdin b Taylor 7

Rao Iftikhar not out 3

EXTRAS (LB-4, W-10, NB-1) 15

TOTAL (for eight wkts, 48.2 overs) 154

FALL OF WKTS: 1-1, 2-40, 3-50, 4-80, 5-90, 6-118, 7-130, 8-147.

DID NOT BAT: Umar Gul.

BOWLING: Taylor 9.2-0-39-3 (3w); Bradshaw 10-3-23-1 (1nb, 2w); Smith 10-1-33-0 (3w); Collymore 10-2-19-3 (1w); Gayle 8-0-26-0 (1w); Samuels 1-0-10-1.

RESULT: Pakistan won by two wickets.

UMPIRES: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and D.J. Harper (Australia).

TV UMPIRE: Zameer Haider (Pakistan).

MATCH REFEREE: A.G. Hurst (Australia).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Inzamam-ul-Haq.

FIRST MATCH: Rawalpindi, no result.

THIRD MATCH: Lahore, Dec 10.

FOURTH MATCH: Multan, Dec 13.

FIFTH MATCH: Karachi, Dec 16.