ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, CMC – Pakistan exposed West Indies weakness to spin bowling and large outfields by cantering to a comfortable eight wicket win in their final match to complete a three-nil whitewash here yesterday.
West Indies lost three front line batsmen to the ordinary left-arm spin of Imad Wasim before stumbling to 103 for five in their 20 overs at Sheikh Zayed Stadium.
Shoaib Malik struck an unbeaten 43 to guide his side to victory with 29 balls remaining.
Debutant fast bowler Kesrick Williams launched his international career by snatching, in one over, the only two Pakistan wickets to fall.
Asked to bat after Pakistan won the toss, West Indies innings careened into disarray in the third over when Wasim picked up two wickets in two balls.
Johnson Charles gifted his wicket when he attempted a heave over midwicket but missed and lost his middle and leg stumps.
Wasim’s next delivery kept low enough to hit the toe end of Chadwick Walton’s bat before crashing into the stumps.
Two overs later, the world champions plunged to 17 for three when Andre Fletcher was run out for nine. Fletcher worked a ball towards square leg and took off without approval from Marlon Samuels but Rumman Raees’ throw was pounced on by Sarfraz Ahmed who whipped off the bails.
A couple of partnerships in the middle of the innings attempted to repair the damaged caused primarily by West Indies failure to adapt, loose shots and bad running.
Samuels and Nicholas Pooran stitched together 37 runs for the sixth wicket until Pooran attempted a shot that would have cleared most grounds only to be caught by Malik on the deep mid-wicket boundary for 16.
Samuels and Kieron Pollard, negotiating spinners that were constantly attacking the stumps including Wasim who finished with three for 21,, then compiled 37 runs for the seventh wicket.
Samuels finished unbeaten on 42 off 59 balls while Pollard, in conditions not favouring big hitting, ended up not out on 16 off 17 balls without hitting a boundary or clearing the ropes.
Pakistan experienced a minor setback at 42 for two after Williams, the pacer from St.Vincent and the Grenadines, kicked-off his international career in spectacular fashion grabbing two wickets for 15 runs.
Williams angled his first delivery of a new over away from Sharjeel Khan who edged to Fletcher behind the stumps while Khalid Latif was beaten by the final ball, a slower delivery, which removed his stumps.
But an unbroken stand of 68 for the third wicket between Malik and Babar Azam who was unbeaten on 27 steered them home.
