The West Indies kept their semi-final hopes alive with a six-wicket Super League victory over Pakistan in their ICC Under-19 World Cup match at Lincoln Green today.

It wasn't a great match, there were too many mistakes from both sides for it to fit that classification. Neither side ran well between the wickets, neither side could be happy with their ground fielding and neither side could avoid buckling under the pressure of the opposition.

The West Indies got there because they buckled less, and when positive batting was required they had better players to execute the calculated risks.

It was interesting too, that Pakistan captain Salman Butt spent some time in match referee Frank Cameron's tent at the end of the game. No official statement was forthcoming after the meeting but it would be safe to presume that Cameron was not happy with the over-done appealing of the Pakistan players.

There were numerous instances but the worst were when they were several times guilty of appealing for leg before wicket decisions when the ball had clearly hit the bat, as runs were awarded the batsmen.

The Pakistan habit of doing a football-like huddle and team chant on the field of play also drew comment from observers who wondered at the place of such practices on a cricket pitch.

Pakistan's innings was a classic case of impetuosity overtaking intelligence. Had they thought about accumulating their runs rather than trying to belt the West Indies bowlers to the four corners of the ground, they may well have scored more than the 162 which was a poor representation of the obvious batting ability the Pakistan side possess.

Khaqan Arsal and Kamran Sajid revealed skills and capabilities as good as anything seen in this tournament yet were undone by their own actions at crucial stages of the innings.

Their scoring went in fits of brilliant hitting and starts of slow accumulation. Both hit some lovely flowing shots which produced runs to and over the boundary but the need to score at a faster clip proved their undoing.

Sajid had survived one superb over of pure theatre from Darren Sammy. In the process of beating Sajid all ends up off four balls of the over, Sammy had to concede as he hit two boundaries.

It was impressive jousting and while Sajid survived for the moment, it did help the softening up process for when the slower bowlers swung into action.

Initially, off spinner Shane Shillingford shut the scoring rate down, and claiming the wicket of Khaqan went part of the way to achieving that. His dismissal, caught in the covers by Narsingh Deonarine for 47 set in train the rot that broke the Pakistan batting.

Lorenzo Ingram, an amiable left-arm slow bowler, found something in the conditions that turned him into a veritable ogre firing hand grenades. He took four wickets for 14 runs off seven overs as eight wickets fell for 51 runs off 112 balls as Pakisan were all out for 162.

Had the West Indian fielding been of a better quality, the Pakistan total may have been much less. The West Indians started with zip in their fielding but as Sajid and Kamran Younis got going they faltered and some of the fumbling in the field was not representative of international class.

The West Indies got off to a flying start in their chase as Donovan Pagon dominated the scoring - it was the fifth over before Alcindo Holder got to face two successive balls. Holder celebrated by hitting left-arm spinner Younis for a powerful straight drive for four.

They got to 66 in the 17th over before they were parted when Pagon was run out in a terrible mix-up for 45 runs. Holder went two overs later in the same fashion for 12. West Indian captain Deonarine scored 11 before playing a dreadful swipe to offer a catch to the gully and there was a sniff of a chance for the Pakistanis.

They felt spin might tell the story of the game after their own demise but the West Indians proved better equipped at handling it and in the end a fine innings from Lendl Simmons who hit 45 not out, and Dwayne Bravo who was 20 not out saw them home in the 45th over.

Deonarine was delighted with the side's performance, they played to their game plan and had put the disappointments of their loss to India behind them.

"We wanted to be positive and to get Pakistan out as quickly as possible. We found the pitch was drier and I gave Lorenzo Ingram the ball to try and tie them up for us.

"We got off to a good start batting but were understandably concerned with the two run outs but we recovered quickly and we are feeling much more confident now," he said.

© CricInfo