Pakistan stretched in West Indies warm-up

Georgetown (Guyana), July 12 (IANS/CMC) A stubborn ninth wicket stand of 41 between Devendra Bishoo and Steven Jacobs brought Guyana to the brink of victory but it was still not enough to prevent Pakistan from stealing an exciting seven-run win in their warm-up 50-over match here.

Bishoo and Jacobs Thursday scored responsible knocks of 28 and 27 to drag Guyana back on course after a middle and lower order batting collapse as they chased a target of 246.

Spinner Saeed Ajmal tore through the Guyanese innings to take 5 for 37 as the homeside side were bowled out for 239 from 49.4 overs.

Opener Ahmed Shehzad hit a top score of 68 for Pakistan who were asked to bat after Guyana won the toss.

Shehzad's innings took 79 deliveries to accumulate and was decorated with nine fours before he was smartly stumped by Anthony Bramble off Bishoo.

Shahid Afridi chipped in with 31 and hit two sixes before he was caught trying to clear the boundary off Veerasamy Permaul, who picked up three wickets for 27 runs.

Bishoo also took three wickets at the expense of 39 runs including the scalps of Umar Akmal for nine and Asad Shafiq for 22.

Keon Joseph returned to dismiss both Wahab Riaz and Mohammed Rizwan for 23 and 12 to end with 2 for 52.

Guyana's run chase started disastrously as they lost Anthony Bramble for a duck in the final ball of their first over and Trevon Griffith a few balls later.

Ramnaresh Sarwan struck a four and a six and was growing in confidence until he edged a ball to Umar Akmal when he was on 27 after adding 54 runs for the third wicket with Leon Johnson.

But the star of the Guyana batting was Narsingh Deonarine who attempted to steady an imploding innings with a top score of 55.

Deonarine, who faced 70 balls, struck five fours and two sixes and when he was bowled Guyana still needed 77 from 10 overs with three wickets in hand.

Jacobs and Bishoo took the fight to the Pakistanis and raised Guyana's 200 in the 44th over.

But when Jacobs was adjudged lbw for his well played 27, Bishoo and Paul Wintz, left to score the remaining 36 runs for victory, batted courageously to bring Guyana within seven runs of the target.

Pakistan will play the West Indies in the first of two One-Day Internationals at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence on Sunday.

--IANS/CMC

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