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Thursday, Dec 14, 2006
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Samuels guides West Indies to victory

TIMELY COMEBACK: Marlon Samuels drives on his way to a century.

MULTAN: Marlon Samuels smashed his first century in a One-Day International in four years on Wednesday, powering the West Indies to an emphatic seven-wicket victory over new-look Pakistan in the fourth ODI of the series.

Samuels, a 25-year-old Jamaican, hit a 6 and seventeen 4s in his unbeaten 100 as the West Indies raced to 212 for three in 34.5 overs after dismissing Pakistan for 209 in 49.5 overs.

The West Indies narrowed Pakistan's lead to 2-1 in the five-match series with the final match to be played in Karachi on December 16.

``Our today's effort was exceptional,'' said captain Brian Lara, who hit the winning boundary and stayed unbeaten on 13.

``We showed a lot of character despite being 2-0 down in the series and I am proud of the performance of my team.''

Breakthrough

Paceman Rana Naved gave Pakistan hope of defending the total when he bowled Chris Gayle (9) with a full pitched delivery and then had Lendl Simmons lbw off successive deliveries in his second over.

However, a 141-run partnership between Samuels and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (60 off 82 balls) then took the game away from Pakistan in an awesome display of powerful hitting.

The pair took 21 runs in seamer Rao Iftikhar's one over before Chanderpaul smashed stand-in captain Abdul Razzaq for three consecutive boundaries and completed his half century off 58 balls.

Samuels, who hit his first century against India in November 2002, completed his second hundred in the 78th one-day international, pulling Abdul Razzaq to square leg boundary for his 17th four of the innings. — AP

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