Pakistan beat WI for T20 series win

Sarfraz Ahmed said the series win means a lot to this young team

DUBAI: Pakistan played good all-round cricket to beat world champions West Indies by 16 runs in the second Twenty20 in Dubai on Saturday, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Skipper Sarfraz Ahmed hit a rapid 32-ball 46 not out to guide Pakistan to 160-4 before pacemen Sohail Tanvir (3-13) and Hasan Ali (3-49) restricted the West Indies to 144-9 at Dubai Stadium.

Pakistan had won the first match by nine wickets on Friday. Pakistan’s unassailable lead leaves the third and final match in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday of academic interest.

Tanvir rocked the West Indies top order with the wickets of Evin Lewis and Marlon Samuels before he later dismissed Nicholas Pooran. He also completed 50 wickets in the shortest format and now has 52 victims in 53 matches.



Sunil Narine top-scored with 30 while Andre Fletcher made 29 but the West Indies for the second day failed to find the batting skills which earned them two World Twenty20 titles, the first in 2012.

Ali dismissed Fletcher, Kieron Pollard (18) and Carlos Brathwaite (eight) in a daring spell of bowling. Narine hit four boundaries and a six during his 17-ball knock but 74 runs in the last five overs proved too much for the champions.

Ahmed said the series win means a lot to this young team.

“We have made good strides and it’s awesome to win the series against the champions,” said Ahmed who has won three in three since taking captaincy.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2016.