Samuels ton steers Windies to 261-7 against Pakistan

Marlon Samuels hit his fifth one-day hundred, pacing the West Indies to 261 for seven against Pakistan in the fourth ODI at the Beausejour Stadium today.
Early-morning rain delayed the start of play by over an hour and resulted in the match being reduced to 49 overs-per-side.
Scoreless for 60 of the 106 deliveries he faced in compiling a painstaking 46 in the tied thriller at the same venue on Friday, the experienced right-hander Samuels returned to something like his sumptuous best.
He stroked four sixes and nine fours off 104 balls in finishing on 106 not out to give the West Indies bowlers something to work with in pursuit of a 2-1 series lead ahead of the final match back at the Beausejour on Wednesday.

He put on 95 for the fifth wicket with Lendl Simmons who hit 46 off 44 balls before he played on to Saeed Ajmal.
West Indies made two significant decisions before a ball was bowled in replacing hard-hitting Kieron Pollard with Devon Smith and demoting Chris Gayle to number five in the batting order in light of his continuing struggle for runs against the new ball.

He was back in the middle at 63 for two after Smith fell cheaply to Mohammad Irfan and Johnson Charles (32) was trapped leg-before by Wahab Riaz, benefiting from a huge slice of luck almost instantly when put down by Mohammad Hafeez off Wahab before he had scored.

Although far from his destructive best, Gayle contributed 30 to a 57-run third-wicket stand with Samuels before failing to clear long-on off the bowling of Shahid Afridi.
Despite that success, Afridi and Wahab Riaz felt the brunt of the late batting assault, piloted by the determined Samuels, whose celebration on reaching three figures off the penultimate ball of the innings revealed a fierce determination not usually associated with the elegant, almost laid-back Jamaican batsman.