Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor

Dwayne Smith is a picture of concentration during a training drill at Kensington Oval yesterday.- Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

PURELY ON statistics, Dwayne Smith might not have had a place in the West Indies team at this Cricket World Cup.

However, because the thought process that goes into team selection does not add up to just numbers, the talented Barbadian right hander was able to unleash his full might on Pakistan in a spectacular Man-of-the-Match performance with bat and ball.

Coming to the crease with his team in trouble at 181 for six at the fall of Denesh Ramdin?s wicket, Smith thrashed Pakistan for 32 off 15 deliveries to catapult the hosts, who eventually got 242 - much more than anticipated in the face of some tight bowling.

?Dwayne really played well, commented his skipper, Brian Lara after Tuesday?s victory. ?At one time before he went out to bat we were looking at 225. To score in excess of 30 runs in 15 balls, hitting the ball out of the park and cleanly was very good for us.?

Smith wasn?t finished.

When Pakistan batted, their two top players - captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Yousuf, were set in a 60-run partnership until Smith turned the screws with a telling spell in which he snared three wickets off 11 balls to finish with three for 36 off 10 overs, as he again turned the match on its head.

Coming in to bowl after Powell (Daren) ... after stifling the run rate in the early overs, you expect them to pick up the run rate from there, Lara noted. But Dwayne came and bowled well and he got the wickets of Inzamam and Mohammad Yousuf, who are their two best players, so his performance was excellent today and he knows that and from here what he wants to do is build on it, and he just doesn't want to sit on his laurels and think I've started well and that's it.

I'm sure that he/s going to work on his game, it?s important for us. We?ve got hopefully 10 or 11 games in the tournament and that's what he?s looking forward to. Performing like that all the time, noted Lara.

Match-winning exploits

Such match-winning exploits form the basis of Smith?s World Cup selection.

In his first game in Windies colours he single-handedly secured a Test match draw against South Africa in January 2004 with a 93-ball century that ended a seven-game losing streak against the Proteas.

However, he has not always delivered on that promise, mainly with the bat, as reflected by a 15.93 average in 60 one-day internationals (ODI) and a top score of 68. That already meagre statistic took a plunge last year, to 8.17 in 17 matches.

Truth be told, his World Cup selection never appeared in jeopardy though as Smith made steady compensation with a growing reputation as a world-class medium pacer and top draw fielder, and a strike rate of 101.07 kept hopes flickering.

They lit up Sabina on Tuesday and a pleased Smith, often criticised for a lack of consistency, admitted how self-belief has kept him strong.

I'm pleased with my first game in the World Cup. I'm really pleased with my performance, he said.

Commenting on the many criticisms, he added: I'm always confident in myself so, I don?t really worry about what people say. I just go out there and do my job and try to do it as best as I can.

Smith added: ?It just shows that you need to work harder and that's what I'm going to do.

There's no better time to bloom.

All I have to say is that its the start of a long journey - six weeks, and we?re not going to get carried away, Lara said. We've got faith, we see him bat every day in the nets and we know that he's capable. We see him with the ball in his hand as well and in the field, so we know what we have in our hands, it's just for him to blossom and carry on.?