West Indies vs. Pakistan 3rd ODI: Five talking points

Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq (Getty Images)

4. The folly of blocking

Both West Indies and Pakistan blocked away to glory in the middle overs after losing initial wickets. The circumstances required application and resilience but there are no faults in accumulating runs on the side.

While Misbah-ul-Haq is earning in a bit of a reputation in the act, Samuels had to go radically out-of-character to do the same. Samuels played 106 deliveries for his 46 runs allowing the run-rate to climb steeply in the middle overs.

Simmons was able to make up for his slow strike rate with some quality hitting at the latter end of his innings. Misbah’s act is almost a necessity given the impatience that the rest of the team suffers from but he needs to rotate the strike in the process.