Who would have predicted that: It's Boom Boom with the ball as Shahid Afridi claims 7/12

In our feature series - Who would have predicted that? – we are looking back at matches where there were big upsets or extraordinary individual performances that turned matches on their head.

Shahid Afridi was making a comeback to the Pakistan ODI side after a gap of almost four months. He had gone wicketless in his last six ODIs despite sending down a total of 57 overs and was determined to prove his mettle yet again at the big stage.

Match Summary

Pakistan 224/9 (50 overs) - Shahid Afridi 76 (55), Misbah-ul-Haq 52 (121); Jason Holder 4/13 (10), Kemar Roach 2/38 (10)

West Indies 98 (41 overs) - Marlon Samuels 25 (75), Daren Sammy 21* (43); Shahid Afridi 7/12 (9), Mohammad Irfan 2/17 (7)

Result - Pakistan won by 126 runs

Before Afridi could have the ball in his hands, he had to rescue Pakistan from dire straits with the bat. After the dismissal of Umar Akmal, Pakistan were teetering at 47/5 against West Indies when Afridi joined Misbah-ul-Haq, the perpetual crisis man for Pakistan.

Misbah finally got good company in Afridi as the two added more than 100 runs. While Misbah batted on for 121 deliveries for his 52, one of the slowest ODI half-centuries, Afridi, in his characteristic style, bludgeoned 76 off 55 balls despite the game scenario.

Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Ahmed Shehzad, 3.3 ov), 2-18 (Mohammad Hafeez, 5.6 ov), 3-21 (Nasir Jamshed, 7.6 ov), 4-23 (Asad Shafiq, 9.1 ov), 5-47 (Umar Akmal, 20.1 ov), 6-167 (Shahid Afridi, 38.6 ov), 7-183 (Wahab Riaz, 44.2 ov), 8-200 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 47.2 ov), 9-220 (Asad Ali, 49.5 ov)

Pakistan were defending a modest 224 but Afridi made it look like 424 when he got Lendl Simmons stumped off the first delivery of his second over. The wicket ball drifted in and moved away off the surface after pitching. On the very next delivery, the ball had been identical until it pitched. This time, it did not move away but slid in with the angle and Dwayne Bravo was trapped in front of the wickets.

Afridi went to take five more wickets as West Indies were bowled out for just 98. The all-rounder recorded the second-best ODI figures of 7/12.

He became the only player in ODI history to score more than 7,000 runs and take over 350 wickets, making him the third Pakistani player after Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis to cross the milestone. Afridi also became the only cricketer to take a 5-wicket haul and score 50+ runs in the same match thrice.

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Johnson Charles, 0.2 ov), 2-7 (Darren Bravo, 4.3 ov), 3-7 (Chris Gayle, 4.6 ov), 4-41 (Lendl Simmons, 22.1 ov), 5-41 (Dwayne Bravo, 22.2 ov), 6-50 (Kieron Pollard, 26.1 ov), 7-51 (Marlon Samuels, 28.2 ov), 8-55 (Kemar Roach, 30.4 ov), 9-98 (Sunil Narine, 40.2 ov), 10-98 (Jason Holder, 40.6 ov)

Teams

West Indies - Johnson Charles (wk), Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Bravo (c), Kieron Pollard, Daren Sammy, Kemar Roach, Sunil Narine, Jason Holder

Pakistan - Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Saeed Ajmal, Asad Ali, Mohammad Irfan

Match Details

Match: WI vs PAK, 1st ODI, Pakistan tour of West Indies 2013 

Date: Sunday, July 14, 2013 

Toss: West Indies won the toss and decided to bowl 

Venue: Providence Stadium, Guyana 

Umpires: Paul Reiffel, Joel Wilson 

Third Umpire: Nigel Llong 

Match Referee: David Boon 

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