In a game which saw the bowlers dominate from start to finish, West Indies eked out a two-wicket win over Pakistan in their ICC Champions Trophy 2013 match at The Oval.
With both sides capable of the spectacular, the match promised an entertaining spectacle, and while not too many runs were scored, it was nail-biting stuff right until the end.
Asked to bat first, Pakistan struggle from the get go, and were bowled out for 170 in 48 overs, with fast bowler Kemar Roach, who was named man of the match, picking up three early wickets to set the tone for the rest of the innings and indeed the match. If not for captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who remained stranded on 96 (127b, 5x4, 3x6), Pakistan would not have even remotely reached that mark.
In reply, West Indies stuttered and sputtered their way to the target, with Mohammad Irfan in particular impressing with the ball for Pakistan, as the tall left-armer made the ball spit and rear from a good length - something that no batsman likes to see.
There were some tense moments throughout, with Chris Gayle (39), Kieron Pollard (30) - both of whom tempered their strokeplay to a great extent - and Marlon Samuels (30) making vital contributions to overhaul the target and give novice skipper Dwayne Bravo a morale-boosting win.
"We didn't make the best use of chasing a small total, but you can't take away anything from the batters," Bravo said. "You know, the Pakistanis bowled very well. You have to give respect to them. Most of the batters got good balls, but at the end of the day, we still fight through.
"It was a tough situation and we came out on top and that's more important. It doesn't matter if you lose eight or nine wickets, we got the two points that we wanted, so this game was very important to us.
"We know Pakistan is a very dangerous team so we're happy to end up on the winning side and hope this definitely will do our confidence very well. We won our last warm-up game and to win this first game, so that's two wins and hopefully we can continue in the same vein."
Misbah felt if Nasir Jamshed, with whom he shared a 90-run third-wicket partnership, had stayed with him for longer, then a score well beyond 200 would have been easily possible.
"I think it wasn't easy in the start," he said. "But I think after Nasir Jamshed got settled, that was really a good partnership. I think that shot played by Nasir that really cost us.
"From there, it was really a game changer, because at that stage it could have been easily 230. And looking at the surface of what I was just guessing it's a good total if you cross 230, something like that.
"But I think we need to just be responsible. Anybody gets set on these sort of conditions, we need to just carry on."
