TAROUBA, Trinidad and Tobago: Shai Hope helped deliver some long overdue good news for the West Indies with a century to inspire the Caribbean cricketers to a series-clinching, 202-run win Tuesday over Pakistan.

It was the first bilateral ODI series won by West Indies against Pakistan since 1991 and ended a run of home series defeats across the test and Twenty20 formats to Australia and Pakistan.

Hope stroked an unbeaten 120 before pace bowler Jayden Seales destroyed Pakistan’s chase with six wickets in the third and final one-day cricket international.

The West Indies captain said he was extremely proud of his team.

Hope added there’d been a lot of stress on negatives in the game but now there was “positives to shout about” for West Indies cricket.

The big win came in the wake of a two-day emergency summit for Caribbean cricket. Hope attended part of the summit, along with greats including Brian Lara and Clive Lloyd, to help create strategies to lift West Indies back toward the top of the international game.

The summit was called after a West Indian lineup scored just 27 runs in its second innings – one run short of the all-time test record for low totals — while losing the third of three tests to Australia.

After losing eight straight matches to Australia and then losing a Twenty20 series 2-1 to Pakistan in Florida, West Indies lost the ODI series-opener to Pakistan last week by five wickets.

West Indies leveled the series with a five-wicket victory in the second ODI to stoke hope of a revival and dominated the third.
Pakistan was dismissed for 92 in 29.2 overs Tuesday after West Indies posted 294-6 at Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad and Tobago.

Hope hit five sixes and 10 fours in his 94-ball knock, sharing an unbroken seventh-wicket stand with Justin Greaves of 110 runs in around eight overs.

Greaves was 43 not out in only 24 deliveries, including two sixes and four fours.

Pakistan collapsed early in its chase to 23-4 in the ninth over, with three ducks from its top four batters. Opener Saim Ayub was caught behind on the third ball of the innings, Abdullah Shafique also failed to score, and Pakistan was 8-3 when captain Mohammad Rizwan was bowled by Seales for a golden duck in the third over.

Seales took his fourth wicket by trapping Babar Azam (9) lbw. Seales finished with figures of 6-18 from 7.2 overs.

Hasan Nawaz (13) advanced and was stumped against the bowling of Gudakesh Motie and Roston Chase bowled Hussain Talat (1), leaving Pakistan on 62-6 in the 21st over. Salman Agha top-scored for Pakistan with a 49-ball 30.

The match and series ended with another golden duck when Abrar Ahmed was run out by Chase.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United States have reaffirmed their commitment to combating militancy and addressing new security threats during a joint counterterrorism dialogue in Islamabad on Tuesday, the Pakistani foreign office said.

The talks, co-chaired by Pakistan’s Special Secretary for the United Nations Nabeel Munir and the US Department of State’s Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Gregory D. LoGerfo, covered strategies to counter militant groups and adapt to emerging security challenges such as the use of new technologies by non-state actors.

The latest meeting was the third counterterrorism dialogue in less than two years, following sessions in May 2024 and March 2023, signaling a renewed phase in joint efforts to counter both traditional militant threats and emerging, technology-driven dangers posed by non-state actors.

“Both delegations emphasized the importance of building stronger institutional frameworks and developing capabilities to respond to security challenges and to counter the use of emerging technologies for terrorist purposes,” the foreign office said in a joint statement after the talks. 

“The United States applauded Pakistan’s continued successes to contain terrorist entities that pose a threat to the peace and security of the region and the world.”

The discussions focused on groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Daesh’s Khorasan chapter, and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The BLA separatist group, which claimed last year’s hijacking of a train in Pakistan’s southwestern mountains in which 31 soldiers, staff and civilians were killed, was designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by Washington on Monday, alongside its Majeed Brigade special operations unit, a move aimed at restricting their funding and support networks.

In recent months, Pakistan has reported the use of commercial drones by TTP militants in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to attack security forces and civilian targets, marking a dangerous shift in militant tactics.

At the Islamabad talks, both countries also agreed to deepen cooperation in multilateral forums, including the United Nations, to promote “effective and enduring approaches to counterterrorism.”

Following the dialogue, LoGerfo met Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who “encouraged sustained and structured bilateral engagement on counterterrorism between both countries, as a vital contributor to peace and stability in the region and beyond,” the statement added.

Pakistan and the US have a long, complex history of security cooperation, particularly during the US-led “War on Terror” after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, when Islamabad was a key partner in military operations in Afghanistan.

In the years since, relations have repeatedly been strained over terrorism and security issues, and were particularly bad during the last government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who publicly accused Washington of working with his political opponents and the military to remove him from office — a charge all three deny.

Under the current US President Donald Trump administration, ties have warmed again, with both sides signaling a renewed willingness to deepen military, counterterrorism and economic cooperation.