The rot has been stopped by West Indies, though it was quite a scramble to get across the line. Thanks to Dwayne Bravo's premeditated six over midwicket in the fourth ODI in Barbados, the Windies did just enough to sneak ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis
calculations before the heavens opened two deliveries later. However, had the match gone the full 50-over distance, Pakistan would have been confident of defending their total of 248 for 9, the highest yet recorded in a low-scoring series.The scoreline now stands at 3-1 instead of 4-0, and though it's not enough to get them back into the series, it is nonetheless a significant crumb of comfort for a team that had not beaten senior Test opposition for the best part of two years. Their eight-wicket victory at Kingston in June 2009 was the last such occasion, so the opportunity to claw the scoreline back to 3-2, with the two-Test series to follow, is not one that ought to be sniffed at.
Pakistan, however, look for the moment to be an enviably settled unit - and given their recent history, that arguably says more about West Indies' current turmoil than anything else, even if their chief selector Mohsin Khan is getting ready to rock their boat ahead of the Test series. The composure shown by Mohammad Hafeez in his second ODI hundred, and by Asad Shafiq in their 153-run stand for the second wicket, set the tone for what should have been a formidable total, until Devendra Bishoo's wiles derailed the latter stages of the innings.
There are clear signs of life in the West Indies squad, with Bishoo's exuberance matched by Lendl Simmons' early onslaught, in which he belted a 36-ball half-century to propel their rain-affected run-chase. But as the recall of Ramnaresh Sarwan demonstrated, not to mention the ongoing issues surrounding Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the changing of the guard in the Caribbean looks set to be a messy and protracted affair. Better times may lie ahead, but one dead-rubber victory can hardly be taken as proof of a new dawn.
