Pakistan Vs West Indies : Pakistan wins the first One day International

Shai Hope's 127 cruised visitors to a total of 305

West Indies won the toss and opted to bat first. Shai Hope and Kyle Mayers opened for Indies. As an early breakthrough, Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissed Kyle Mayer as the batters scooped it only to land in the hands of the bowler. Shamarh Brooks took to the crease with Hope, and the duo partnered to score 154 runs off 169 balls. After dismissing Mayers in the 3rd over, the next wicket came for Pakistan in the 31st over as Mohammad Nawaz dismissed Brooks. What followed after was the dominance of Pakistan bowlers, with Shai Hope on one end and other batters struggling. Two quick wickets of Nicholas Pooran and Brandon King came for Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan. Shai Hope scored a classy 127, taking him past 4000 runs in ODI before Haris Rauf bowled him out. Rovman Powell and Romario Shepherd added 32 and 25 runs respectively in the end to bring the total past 300. Rauf dismissed Shepherd and Akeal Hosein to complete his four-wicket haul. They scored 305 at a loss of 8 wickets in 50 overs. 

Babar's ton and Khushdil's cameo sealed the win for the hosts in a thriller.

With a target of 306, not much on Multan's surface, Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq took to the crease to start the chase game. Jayden Seales dismissed Fakhar Zaman (11) early, before Imam entered a 103-run partnership with skipper Babar Azam. Imam-ul-Haq scored 65 before being taken by Akeal Hosein.  Babar Azam built another 108-run partnership with Mohammad Rizan, completing his 18th ODI ton. The duo was cruising towards the finish with 72 runs required in nine overs with eight wickets still in hand, but Alzarri Joseph drew Babar for a bouncer with 69 runs still to win and fragile middle order coming into the picture. Soon Romario Shepherd dismissed Mohammad Rizwan, making the asking rate climb to 12. After Babar's show came the Khushdil show, who put away Shepherd for three consecutive sixes. West Indies struck Shadab Khan and took it to the final over; however, it was too late to recover. Mohammad Nawaz sealed the win with a six and helped Pakistan survive the scare to win it by five wickets with four balls remaining.

Babar Azam, awarded player of the match, handed the award to debutant Khushdil Shah. He said, "My game plan was to take the game deep. No matter what happened, I wanted to give my 100% to the team. [On his process] The last two years I have been working on my power hitting. Earlier, I used to play on the leg stump, now I am working on my off-stump game. In the 10-12 days camps we had, the coaches helped me improve my batting. Not just the power-hitting but also accumulating the singles and doubles. I just wanted to hit the balls in my zone, else accumulate the ones and twos."

West Indies did a decent job but fell short towards a crucial phase, whereas Pakistan successfully pulled it in the end. With this, Pakistan grabbed ten super league points, and cricket returned to Multan after 14 years with an excellent win for Pakistan. They will face each other for the 2nd ODI on 10th June at the same ground.