GROS ISLET: Opener Ahmed Shehzad struck his second one-day international hundred to anchor Pakistan to a confident seven-wicket victory over West Indies on Monday.
Shehzad hit seven fours and one six in his 102 from 148 balls as Pakistan successfully chased 221 for victory in the second ODI at the Beausejour Cricket Ground.
Umar Akmal carried the visitors over the threshold with 12 balls remaining when he lofted a delivery from Dwayne Bravo to long-off for the final boundary of the match.
The result means that Pakistan take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series after winning the first game by eight wickets on Saturday at the same ground.
Pakistan have now won their last seven ODIs against West Indies, a sequence spread over the last four years.
"We made a plan at our team meeting and our guys stuck to it and that was good," said Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi.
"Shehzad is a very talented guy and he showed that he is capable of performing. He took his time, but chasing a small total, he could afford to do that and we won the game.
"I think our bowlers are doing a great job, and the fielding has improved because it is a very important area for us. Our batting has shown responsibility and we hope to maintain this discipline right throughout the series."
The visitors' spin bowling trio of Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez and Afridi had dominated on another docile pitch.
After Pakistan chose to field, West Indies were dismissed for 220 in their 50 overs - one less than the total they made in the first ODI.
Ajmal, Hafeez and Afridi shared six wickets for 102 runs in 30 overs between them, and only West Indies opener Lendl Simmons looked close to getting on top of them, leading the way with 51 from 48 balls, which included four fours and two sixes.
"We didn't make use of the key moments in the match," said West Indies captain Darren Sammy.
"We could have tried to squeeze their batsmen more and when we batted we got a good start, but did not capitalise on it.
"The spinners continue to bog us down, and we could have got a lot more on the board. It seems that whatever approach we have taken, we seem only able to get the same kind of total on the board. We have a lot more work to do."
Shehzad shared three successive half-century partnerships with Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq and Misbah-ul-Haq that put Pakistan firmly on course for their victory.
He glanced a delivery in the 44th over from Dwayne Bravo to deep fine leg for a single to reach his milestone from 143 balls.
"We tried to keep wickets in hand. It was not a huge total so I knew that I had to control my stroke-play and not get carried away," said Shehzad.
He was fortunate on 30 when he came close to being run out after pulling a delivery from Bravo to mid-wicket and Hafeez turned down the chance of going for a single.
Sammy fired his throw from mid-wicket wide of the stumps and the opener was able to regain his ground.
By the time he became the second wicket for leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo in the 46th over, Pakistan required just 30 from the final 28 deliveries which came with little trouble.
The third and fourth matches of the series will be played on Thursday and Monday at Kensington Oval in Barbados, with the final game coming three days later at the Guyana National Stadium.
KARACHI: Two navy buses were targeted in separate bomb explosions in the metropolis killing at least one personnel while injuring several others on Tuesday morning, police sources said.
According to the details, first bomb blast took place when an explosive-laden motorcycle rammed into the navy bus on Korangi Road in Defence phase II. The bus was carrying 50 navy personnel.
Second bomb explosion occurred in Baldia town when the bus, carrying navy personnel, was moving from Naval Colony to Hub.
Local administration reached the sites soon after the incidents. Meanwhile, injured personnel of Defence phase II blast were taken to PNS Shifa Hospital while injured men of Baldia town blast were taken to Murshid hospital.
DERA ISMAEL KHAN: Chief Minister Punjab Mian Mohammed Shahbaz Sharif Sunday called for formation of new provinces in Sindh province as being demanded in Punjab, adding that Karachi be made a province, Geo News reported.
Addressing a ceremony of laying the foundation stone of a school building, CM Punjab termed those killed in North Waziristan in US drone attacks as being his brothers.
Shahbaz said US drone attacks are promoting terrorism in Pakistan. “This government cannot stop missile attacks because they are earning dollars in exchange of those attacks,” he revealed.
Advising government he said, we will have to break begging-bowl if we want to lead an honorable life.
He said that being beggars and nuclear power are two different facts, which cannot run shoulder-to-shoulder.
Denying to comment on his party’s leader Makhdoom Javaid Hashmi’s statement, Shahbaz prayed for his long life.
Not only should new provinces be formed in South Punjab but Karachi should also be made a new province.
ISLAMABAD: The Christian community is celebrating Easter today (April 24) at all the churches across the country.
Easter Sunday is typically the most well attended Sunday service of the year for Christian churches as the Christian community holds prayers and special ceremonies to mark the Easter week.
The Friday before Easter Sunday is observed as a mourning day that lord died on Good Friday while Easter Sunday is celebrated as 'Jesus resurrected on Easter Sunday.
Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday (also Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday).
Easter marks the end of Lent; a 40-day period of fasting and the last week of the Lent is called Holy Week, which contains Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus.
Easter is followed by 50-day period, called Eastertide or the Easter Season ending with Pentecost Sunday. Easter is a moveable feast, as it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar.
It occurs during the spring, in March or April; the method for determining the date of Easter Sunday is complex, based on lunisolar calendar. Easter customs vary across the Christian world, but decorating Easter eggs is a common motif.
In the Western world, customs such as egg hunting and Easter Bunny extend from the domain of church, and often have a secular character.
NEW YORK: Despite earlier concerns, downing lots of coffee doesn't seem to increase the risk of high blood pressure, according to a new report -- but the evidence isn't conclusive.
High blood pressure has been linked to heart disease, stroke, and a shorter life expectancy, and some scientists have suggested that coffee might fuel the problem.
The new report pools data from six previous studies that included more than 170,000 people in total. For each study, scientists surveyed the participants to find out how many cups of coffee they drank each day -- from less than one to more than five -- and then followed them for up to 33 years.
Just more than one in five participants eventually developed high blood pressure, according to the findings, which appear in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
But the chance of being diagnosed with the condition was no different between people who said they chugged more than five cups of coffee per day and those who drank very little.
Still, the report "is not saying there's no risk" to drinking lots of java, Dr. Liwei Chen, who worked on the study, told Reuters Health.
Chen, from the Louisiana State University School of Public Health in New Orleans, said more data would be needed to draw a firm conclusion.
What's more, people who drank between one and three cups per day had a slightly higher risk of high blood pressure than those who drank less -- a result the researchers couldn't explain.
Dr. Lawrence Krakoff, who studies high blood pressure at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, said that the question about coffee's effects "keeps popping up" among both his patients and fellow doctors.
But it has yet to be answered completely, said Krakoff, who was not involved in the new work.
"I don't think of coffee as a risk factor for" high blood pressure, he told Reuters Health. However, "If people are drinking 12 cups a day and aren't sleeping, I assume that that's an important issue."
Dr. Gary Curhan, who worked on one of the studies Chen and her colleagues looked at, agreed.
"There may be other adverse effects to (drinking) large amounts of caffeine," Curhan, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, told Reuters Health.
But based on the existing data, he said there is no reason to believe that drinking coffee would lead to high blood pressure.
Chen's team could not compare the effect of drinking caffeinated versus decaffeinated coffee, as some of the studies they analyzed had participants report both together or only asked about caffeinated coffee.
And the relationship between coffee drinking and blood pressure is further complicated by the possibility that it doesn't work the same way in everyone, she said.
"People with a different genetic background may react to coffee differently," Chen said. "For some people maybe it's safe to drink a lot of coffee, but not for other people."
