Nawaz-Talat stand takes Pakistan over the line in first ODI

An unbeaten 104-run partnership between debutant Hasan Nawaz and Hussain Talat - playing his second game - helped a nervous Pakistan overcome a stutter to chase down 281 in the penultimate over and take a 1-0 lead in the ODI series with a five-wicket win.

West Indies had put up 280 through three half-centuries in the first innings, but Pakistan's spinners contained them to keep them to a below-par score with Shaheen Shah Afridi (4 for 51) and Naseem Shah (3-55) mopping the hosts up at the death.

Pakistan's pursuit was far from convincing, struggling to pace the innings too. Babar Azam (47) and Mohammad Rizwan (53) each fell after promising, if placid, starts, and West Indies found themselves burrowing into the lower order when Rizwan fell with 101 still to get. But Nawaz overcame early struggles and briefly rode his luck with a couple of dropped chances to turn the game around with 63 not out, eventually finishing it at a canter alongside the more solid Talat, who made an unbeaten 41 in 37 balls.

Much of Pakistan's ODI success over the past year depended on Saim Ayub getting them off to a flyer, so it felt significant West Indies neutralised that threat early, Jayden Seales extracting rubber-ball bounce that took his edge and flew on command into the keeper's gloves. While Babar took his time to settle, Abdullah Shafique looked classically pretty through an even-paced knock, but found himself undone by slightly lower bounce that excited Shamar Joseph enough to force his captain's hand into a successful review.

Initially, it appeared the worst of Babar and Rizwan was on display in that third-wicket partnership. At one point early on, they would play sixteen successive dot balls as the asking rate crept above six. They began, as they so often do, to catch up, finding regular boundaries and running a few twos, and the asking rate gradually eased back down into the fives. Whether that redeemed their slow start or made them even more culpable is by now an intractable question to answer.

But West Indies trusted their pace bowlers longer than Pakistan had, only delivering one over of spin until the 20th over. But that wasn't a commentary on Gudakesh Motie's skills, who began to trouble the pair, ultimately sending Babar packing when he ventured out for a slog and was deceived by the turn three runs short of his half-century.

Salman Ali Agha was more proactive, but threw away a decent start when he scooped a ball that gripped right back into a grateful Roston Chase's hands. The value of Rizwan's wicket was growing with each passing wicket, and he'd eased himself past a half-century by once more, Joseph found a way to rap him in front of the pads, this time securing the on-field decision that put West Indies on top.

Nawaz and Talat, one ODI in 2019 the sum total of their 50-over international experience, seemed unlikely saviours at that point. Hasan scored just three off his first 12 balls, and looked vulnerable against spin. Shai Hope dropped him early as a nick off an attempted slog couldn't nestle into his gloves, and with the asking rate rising, he was the one Pakistan required out there until the very end.

The tide began to turn in the 39th over by which time the dew was making the ball hard to grip. Talat smacked Chase for two boundaries, before a rare errant over from Joseph saw five wides and 17 runs scored which brought the asking rate to just above seven. It was the break Pakistan needed to pace the innings on their terms, with each player finding the boundary anytime the equation became uncomfortable.

With four overs to go and Nawaz on 49, Motie put down an unforgivably easy chance at short third, and as Seales went down on his knees in disbelief, the fate of the game was sealed. Talat plundered 15 off the following over, and five balls later, Nawaz had sealed the win.

Earlier, West Indies were put in to bat partially because of the uncertainty of conditions both overhead and underfoot, and once they'd brushed off the customary first-over wicket Afridi tends to take so often, Evin Lewis and Keacy Carty began to set a platform in the powerplay. Shaheen and Naseem struggled to find bite with the new ball, and by the eighth over, Rizwan had turned to the spin of Ayub. On a surface that has seen just the one ODI played, no one really knew how successful that would be, but the next two and a half-hours answered that question.

With the surface gripping, each of Pakistan's three spinners - Ayub, Agha, and Sufiyan Muqim - were thrust in immediately. The following 27 overs saw just one over of seam bowled as West Indies found themselves bleeding the occasional wicket while the run-rate Lewis and Carty had helped keep around six dipped below five. It was telling that the one over of seam - from Faheem Ashraf, saw Lewis pillage a six and a four bringing up his half-century in the process.

But Lewis - on 60 - felt Ayub was the spinner to target, and having dispatched him for a boundary, opted to heave the final ball of his third over into the air. Shaheen spun himself around a couple of times before improbably holding onto it. A tortured innings from Sherfane Rutherford then concluded when he spooned Agha to cover-point.

Chase (53) and Hope (55) put together a stand for the fifth wicket, but with no break from the stifling spinners, the run-rate began to fall. The 64 they added came off 89 deliveries, and with just one ball after the 34th over, Shaheen and Naseem began to find reverse swing. It took them a couple of overs to find their accuracy, during which Chase brought up his half-century. But he holed out to Naseem almost immediately afterwards, and just as the ball began to reverse, West Indies' tail was exposed.

The yorkers began to land, and West Indies had no answer. Naseem and Shaheen found pinpoint accuracy, and any runs West Indies scored had luck attached to them. At one point, the matting for the stump-mic helped lift the ball over Rizwan for four byes, and the following over a 140kmph yorker from Naseem hit leg stump, but without dislodging the bails.

Even so, the last three were cleaned up by Pakistan's two frontline quicks hitting the base of the stumps, and bowling West Indies out with an over to spare. Later, Pakistan would achieve their own target with seven balls to go.