DUBLIN, May 23: Mohammad Hafeez scored his fifth century in One-day International cricket to put Pakistan in a commanding position in the first match of their series against Ireland at the Clontarf Club Ground here on Thursday.
The Pakistan innings was interrupted four times by rain but only three overs were lost and the tourists scored 144 off 16 overs after the final rain-break to finish on 266 for five.
Ireland's revised target was 276 off 47 overs.
Hafeez, who came to the wicket in the 10th over after opener Nasir Jamshed left the field with an injury, finished on 122 not out, from 113 balls with 12 fours and two sixes and shared a second wicket stand of 188 with Asad Shafiq who fell 16 runs short of a deserved hundred.
The number one ranked ODI all-rounder, Hafeez still considers himself primarily a batsman and he showed why with a fluent innings full of well-timed drives and deft, late cuts.
When he brought up his century in the 44th over, he kissed the Clontarf pitch before raising his bat to the many Pakistan fans at the Dublin venue.
Nasir had to retire hurt with back trouble early in his innings, although he returned at the fall of the second wicket, and when Imran Farhat was caught at first slip by Paul Stirling, both openers were back in the pavilion with only 33 on the board.
But the Hafeez-Asad partnership put Pakistan in control, broken when the latter was caught at long-on, his 84 coming off just 89 balls with nine boundaries.
Pakistan's 221 for one became 231 for four when captain Misbah-ul-Haq was run out without facing a ball, after both batsmen ended up in the middle of the pitch but three fours from Kamran Akmal and a final flourish from Hafeez, who fittingly ended the innings with another boundary, left Ireland with much to do.—AFP
Scoreboard
PAKISTANImran Farhat c Stirling b Cusack 9Nasir Jamshed c Murtagh b O’Brien 20Mohammad Hafeez not out 122Asad Shafiq c Johnston b Cusack 84Misbah-ul-Haq run out 0Kamran Akmal b K.J. O’Brien 13Shoaib Malik not out 1EXTRAS (B-2, LB-2, W-13) 17TOTAL (for five wkts, 47 overs) 266FALL OF WKTS: 1-33, 2-221, 3-231, 4-231, 5-261.DID NOT BAT: Ehsan Adil, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan.NOTE: Nasir Jamshed (15) retired hurt at 27-0 and resumed at 221-2.BOWLING: Johnston 10-2-53-0 (3w); Murtagh 9-0-40-0 (2w); Cusack 8-0-50-2 (2w); K.J. O’Brien 5-0-43-2; Dockrell 10-0-45-0 (1w); Stirling 5-0-31-0.IRELAND: W.T.S. Porterfield, P.R. Stirling, E.C. Joyce, N.J. O’Brien, G.C. Wilson, K.J. O’Brien, A.R. Cusack, A.R. White, D.T. Johnston, G.H. Dockrell, T.J. Murtagh.UMPIRES: R.P. Smith (Ireland) and I.J. Gould (England)MATCH REFEREE: J.J. Crowe (New Zealand).