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I don't know about the adjudicators, but to my mind, the man of this match is Brian Lara. This was a match won by captaincy that ranged from the thoughtful to the downright brilliant, as Lara, with limited resources, pulled off what on paper would have qualified as an upset win.

The pitch seemed green-tinged -- but that was merely grass rolled in, to bind the track together. So Lara, on winning the toss, chose to insert -- a ploy that would seem to fly in the face of the fact that the West Indies, on paper, were stronger in batting than in bowling. His reason? "I think this wicket will play slow, the slower bowlers will be hard to get away in the second half of the match."

Spot on -- and having called the play right, Lara drove it home with some brilliant bowling changes and spot on field placing, in a squeeze play that had Pakistan, with all that experience, sweating.

Talking of reading pitches, it didn't seem like Wasim Akram and Azhar Mahmood had read the pitch too well, in the initial overs -- their bowling had far too much width, and not enough length, there were wides and no balls by the dozen, and the West Indies openers capitalised. Stuart Williams is not exactly noted for the felicity of his feet movement, but with the bowlers giving him room, the opener came up with some classic footwork on the drive, while at the other end, the imposing Philo Wallace, who wouldn't be out of place in the WWF ring, hit clean through the line with enviable regularity, to have the Windies rocketing off to 33/0, 65/1 and 106/1 at the five, ten and 15 over mark. Which, incidentally, is the fastest 100 brought up by a team, thus far, beating South Africa's 95/0 at this stage the other day, against England.

The only wicket to fall in that phase was Williams who, once Akram switched to around the wicket, went back to playing like his feet were nailed to the ground. Mahmood trapped him with a slower one on off cutting in a shade, the lack of footwork of the batsman combing with the change of pace to trap him in front.

Chanderpaul's bat seemed to have more than its share of edges early on, and he has this tendency to go way across to off side as the bowler delivers. But he is a player in the number three mould, concentrating on holding his end up, letting the more flamboyant strokeplayers at the other end do the hard work -- and Wallace, now the man with the fastest 50 in the tournament, was only too glad to oblige. Around this phase, the introduction of Saqlain was expected to make the difference -- the only difference it did make, though, was in a further acceleration of the scoring rate, as the offie appeared to have a very bad day in office. His line tended to stray to leg, which seemed rather uncalled for given the tight offside field he had been given, and Wallace in particular took full toll, swinging him round time and again through the square leg region and forcing him out of the attack -- an indignity Saqlain doesn't suffer too often.

It is a measure of Pakistan's bowling fortunes that by the 20th over, five bowlers had been tried and, barring the off spin of Arshad Khan, none looked in the least impressive. What made things worse for the bowling side was some inept fielding -- the throwing in particular bordering on the ludicrous as the West Indians ran merrily for just about everything.

Given the start, the indications were the score could go right through the glass ceiling -- but the West Indies are predictable only in their unpredictability, and just when they looked to have all bases covered, came the slump. Wallace got out the only way it seemed he would go -- run out as his cut was parried by Malik at gully, into the hands of brother in law Ijaz Ahmed at a very square point, the latter relaying the ball to the keeper before the batsman, sent back, could make his ground.

Lara came in and looked like he was in one heck of a hurry. He also looked like he had left his strokes, and his timing, back in his kitbag, playing with an element of risk that would have given palpitations to an insurance agent. The more risks he took, the more extravagantly he stroked, the less he actually produced -- and that kind of thing pretty much always has only one end. Moin Khan made a hash of a very simple stumping, off Arshad Khan, in the 21st over. An over later, Sohail reacted late, at slip, to an edge off the same bowler. Sohail put on the thumb screws with a slip and a silly point for the two offies, bowling in tandem (good captaincy there, given the two left handers at the wicket), Lara reacted by trying to hit Arshad over long on, never did get there for the shot, and ended up sending one ballooning over the bowler's head for Saqlain to run round and hold.

Hooper, from ball one, was the antithesis of his skipper -- all silken touch and cool temperament. But Chanderpaul, who till then seemed to be right at home playing anchor, suddenly got adventurous and lost his wicket at the most inopportune of moments, getting stumped after a failed foray down the wicket, beaten both for flight and for turn.

From 167/3 in 25, the Windies innings deteriorated in a completely unexpected fashion -- if, that is, you judge by the evidence of the first 25. In the second half of the innings, they lost 6 wickets for just 122 runs -- which, by any yardstick, qualifies as bad batting, and a potentially lethal inability to make use of a sound platform. Hooper's wicket was against the run of play, with Salim Malik -- Sohail's last throw of the dice -- holding one back for the batsman to sleepwalk into a push back into the bowler's hands. Arthurton, making a comeback to the side after a disastrous showing in the World Cup, steadied his initial nerves, Simmons hit every ball as though it was some personal enemy, his problem being that while he was long on power, he seemed a shade short on placement.

Sohail brought Akram back in the death and in his first over, the bowler found the edge of Arthurton's bat -- the edge that the batsman had, till then, been using very intelligently to work runs down to third man, mind you -- for Moin to hold. Ridley Jacobs lasted just one ball -- Akram bowling a yorker from wide of the crease, and umpire Orchard, who had a bad day in office all round (Saqlain to this moment wouldn't have figured out why he was no-balled twice on the trot earlier), raised his finger when the ball would clearly have missed another set of stumps.

David Shepherd compensated by giving Rawl Lewis in at the other end, off a snick that was audible to everyone but the umpire from England, Malik being the sufferer. Akram then produced the classical left arm quick's yorker, going round the wicket and angling on leg stump, the ball going under the bat as the right hander looked to step to leg and hit over extra cover. Speaking of which, I wonder just when batsmen are liable to figure that in the death, this business of stepping to leg doesn't work too good against the really classy fast bowlers who have, in the in-dipping yorker, the perfect antidote?

Thanks to Rawl Lewis' swinging an educated willow around at the very end, aided and abetted by Merwyn Dillon, the Windies finished up with 289/9 in the allotted 50 overs, giving their bowlers something to aim at. West Indies, though, sold themselves short on this one -- the second half of their innings being the exact opposite of the first half. Pakistan, in contrast, bowled much better in phase two, getting back to the basics of line and length and denying too many gimme balls to the batsmen.

Pakistan had an embarassment of riches when it comes to opening possibilities -- and Sohail decided on Salim Elahi and Shahid Afridi. It's been a while since Elahi was seen in action. It's rather funny, really -- if Windies' opener Stuart Williams is known for his lack of footwork, then Elahi compensates with way too much of shuffle. Back with the back foot, then half forward, then further back, then the front foot again -- and by the time he's done with the waltz, middle and leg are showing behind his back and he ends up cramping himself on the off side.

Afridi, for his part, is a champion when he can move onto the front foot and club the ball around -- but push him onto the back foot and he gets a bit nervy. Dillon and Nixon McClean may not be up there in the Ambrose-Walsh class as fast bowlers, but they are pacy and despite their inexperience, showed they had the ability to pitch a very full line. Afridi improvised one four, off Dillon, but to the very next ball, went too far across to off to hit to leg, was beaten both for pace and for the very full length, and went back LBW.

That brought Azhar Mahmood to the crease, ostensibly to pinch hit -- a move I could quarrel with. When you have classy, experienced batsmen like Sohail, Ijaz and Salim Malik, I would think it makes more sense for Mahmood to be held back for the middle, more so when the asking rate at the start was not even 6 an over -- where, in that situation, lay this need for neck or nothing hitting?

Around this point, though the quick bowlers just kept stepping up gears and bowling faster and faster, the fielding went to pieces. Simmons dropped Elahi after getting both hands to the ball as it went over his head at short cover and, off the next over, Dillon at mid on dropped a sitter off Mahmood -- misses that could have potentially disastrous consequences.

It was at this point that Lara's captaincy came through. With Pak going at 23/0 in 5 and 55/1 in 10, it was the act of a bold man to bring on Hooper and Arthurton in quick succession -- but then, Lara had before the match indicated that he thought this was a wicket for slow bowlers, and he was backing that judgement here. In the very first over, Hooper almost had Mahmood caught by Dillon, and in Arthurton's first over, he finished the job off, as Mahmood aimed an ambitious cut at a straight ball on off, pushed through with the arm, and was bowled.

That stroke, in various guises, was to be the undoing of a series of Pakistan batsmen, as they failed completely to come to terms with Arthurton's straight as a string style of bowling -- perfect three quarter length, a very straight line, an ability to skid the ball in at the batsmen all combining to make him very difficult to get away.

Actually, not -- Arthurton's bowling is the kind you play very straight, through the V, the best hit against him being back over his head or over long on (if you are a left hander -- the route I would think Robin Singh will take against him on Saturday). The problem was, too many of the Pakistan batsmen wanted to step to leg and hit on the up, on the off -- and that, when the bowler is of the skiddy variety and very straight in line, causes disaster.

Sohail found that out, stepping away to cut Hooper and losing off stump -- a completely uncalled for shot at that point, and induced purely by the pressure of being unable to get either of the slow bowlers away for runs.

That same pressure produced a spate of very risky singles by Ijaz Ahmed, looking rather uncomfortable against Rawl Lewis turning the ball a long way, and Salim Elahi. Pakistan with 96/3 in the 20th over seemed way behind the Windies score of 147/2 at that stage -- but that difference should be read in context of the meal the team batting first had made of the second half of the innings. If the Pakistan batsmen had concentrated on just working the ball around, and kept the target in sight, they were still odds on to win -- but as so often with Pakistan, panic set in when there seemed no need for it.

Ijaz pushed Lewis to Dillon at a very short midwicket, Elahi ran to the batsman's call and paid the price, the ball having been pushed straight to the fielder, who relayed it in well ahead of the non-striker.

For some strange reason, the inexperienced Akthar Sarfaraz was sent ahead of the experienced Salim Malik, and the new batsman proved a bundle of nerves, struggling to get the ball off the square while the ask rate kept climbing. 116/4 at 25 meant that Pakistan had to get 173 off the last 25.

With Lara putting his best fielders on boundary patrol, and the bowlers clearly reluctant to play Santa Claus, there were no gimme balls on offer. Pakistan, thus, went from over number 13 to over number 29 with just one boundary in between -- and that, plus the nervous display of Sarfaraz, was bound to pile the pressure on Ijaz at the other end.

The return of Nixon McClean saw Sarfaraz go down the track, trying to clear long on. As it turned out, he failed to get to the pitch, got lots of elevation without the corresponding distance, and Dillon held well behind the bowler's back.

That brought Malik and Ijaz together, and sanity seemed to be returning to the Pakistan innings as the two batsmen worked the ball around very well, ran some quick singles, got the odd boundary and got the scoreboard to do more than splutter. 140/4 at 30 meant the ask rate was 7.5 -- which in turn meant that if the two experienced batsmen could keep it there or thereabouts, Pakistan had a very good chance of pulling the game off.

Lara brought Arthurton back into the attack when he saw the Ijaz-Malik partnership show signs of settling down and straight off, Ijaz stepped to leg to hit to off, as in previous instances, the ball skidded through on the batsman, beat the flailing bat and crashed into the stumps. And Malik compounded the folly, immediately thereafter, with a misguided attempt at the reverse sweep, missing completely and being trapped in front.

That was Arthurton's penultimate over. And in his last over, the left arm bowler banged another nail into the coffin when he had Akram slashing at one outside off, for Ridley Jacobs behind the stumps to stay low, keep his eyes on the ball and hold a thin edge with deceptive ease.

Moin Khan played a little cameo at the end, but an overeager pull at a short ball landed in the hands of deep midwicket and the Pakistan innings, at that point, finally gave up the ghost.

For the West Indies, Arthurton was the bowling star, aided and admirably abetted by Rawl Lewis and Carl Hooper. All three showed admirable commonsense in keeping the ball as slow as they could, forcing the heave-ho on the batsmen, and waiting for the inevitable mistakes to occur. And to their credit, the two inexperienced quicks bowled with a lot of fire and sound sense, pitching a full line, not giving too much room outside off and, above all, bowling to their field.

So that makes it the West Indies to take on India in Saturday's semifinal -- but first, there is the Sri Lanka versus South Africa game tomorrow.

An interesting match up -- South Africa bats up to number 10, but the bowling is the weakest we've seen from the Proteas in a long time. Given that, Hansie Cronje will probably feel more comfortable chasing, rather than putting additional pressure on the bowling by forcing it to defend a target.

As for the Lankans, they have a very well balanced side this time, with equal strength in both bowling and batting. And it is odds on that Ranatunga, too, will prefer the chase -- in fact, he said as much in the post-toss briefing in his first game, when he inserted the Kiwis declaring that he would prefer to bat second, as that is what his team did best.

A key toss coming up, therefore -- and if I were to call this game, I would call the odds favouring the Lankans to go through to the final, purely on the strength of their better all round strength.

Which reminds me, a fire of unspecified proportions at VSNL disrupted our commentary today. I am told that the problem is in a fair way to being solved, so we will be live, tomorrow, with the first of the two semifinals.

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