Inzamam-ul-Haq will one day tire of being asked why he batted first in a major semi-final against West Indies, at the end of a season dominated by chasing sides and in conditions favouring seamers.

He justified his decision by mumbling something about the pitch being a good one and his spinners coming into the game later in the day.

But this was inexplicable reasoning given that the Rose Bowl pitches have offered seam movement all year and his best bowlers, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami, are two of the world's finest pacemen.

It was such a bad decision that it immediately put a smile on Brian Lara's face, who could not believe his luck, and that smile was broader still after Pakistan had collapsed to 131 all out, losing their last seven wickets for 31 runs.

West Indies' comfortable win by seven wickets with 21.4 overs to spare, was built around a fine 56 not out by Ramnaresh Sarwan and a freescoring 31 in 30 balls by Brian Lara before he was forced to retire hurt.

Lara was struck a nasty blow on the back of the head trying to avoid an Akhtar bouncer in a ferocious spell of fast bowling which rivalled anything we have seen this summer.

With a strong wind at his back, Akhtar worked up speeds in the mid-nineties and, briefly, even gave Pakistan the faintest whiff of victory when he took the wickets of both openers inside the first five overs.

His caught and bowled dismissal of Wavell Hinds involved a magnificent reflex catch off a full-blooded drive.

But then Sarwan and Lara quickly eliminated all Pakistan's hopes by refusing to eke out the runs and, instead, shared a blistering partnership of 56 at a run a ball.

Sarwan was in sublime touch after his matchwinning innings against South Africa, and he pulled Sami for six, and drove him off the back foot just a foot short of another maximum.

Lara, not used to a supporting role, also started throwing the bat at everything, three fours coming in consecutive balls off Abdul Razzaq, before he was struck on the back of the head with the score on 76-2.

The blow left him reeling and he brushed his stumps with his pads without dislodging a bail as he collapsed to the ground.

Sensibly, after taking several minutes to regain his composure, he retired hurt with the game all but over and plenty of batting to come.

Pakistan's innings had got off to the worst of starts when Ian Bradshaw's outswing forced an edge from Salman Butt with the third ball of the day, and only recovered momentarily with a decent innings of 39 from Yasir Hameed.

He took Pakistan's score to 65-1 but then threw his wicket away, run out by a yard by Dwayne Bravo's accurate throw from deep point.

No other Pakistani player batted with anything like his command in conditions so favourable to the medium-pacers, even Inzamam failing to hit a boundary in his innings of 21, and Corey Collymore at times proving unplayable.

West Indies were not tested by a poor performance by Pakistan, but with Sarwan in such fine form, and many other match-winners in their side, will provide a severe test for England in the final.

Pakistan: Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Yasir Hameed, Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik, Yousuf Youhana, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Moin Khan, Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar.

West Indies: BC Lara (capt), CH Gayle, W Hinds, RR Sarwan, S Chanderpaul, DJJ Bravo, RL Powell, R Hinds, C Browne, IDR Bradshaw, C Collymore.

22 Sep, 2004