KARACHI, Pakistan, CMC – A listless effort condemned West Indies to a fifth defeat in their last six Twenty20 Internationals as Pakistan cantered to a 63-run victory in the opening game of the three-match series here yesterday.
The visitors made a bright start to the contest at the National Stadium when they removed marquee batsman and captain Babar Azam without scoring off the fourth ball, but then failed to contain opener Mohammad Rizwan, who lashed 78 off 52 balls and Haider Ali, who hit 68 from 39 deliveries as Pakistan gathered an imposing 200 for six off their 20 overs.
Fast bowler Romario Shepherd grabbed two for 43 in his first T20 International in five months but apart from left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein with one for 19 from his four overs, the remaining bowlers all leaked runs.
Needing to score at a shade over 10 runs per over, West Indies faltered from the outset and stumbled their way to 137 all out with an over to spare, the run chase crippled by 20-year-old speedster Mohammed Wasim with a career-best four for 40 and leg-spinner Shadab Khan who claimed three for 17.
Opener Shai Hope top-scored with 31 but the knock required 26 balls and cameos by Odean Smith (24) and Rovman Powell (23) were not enough to rescue the innings.
“I thought we gave away 20 runs [too many] in the field. Eight boundaries went in edges so we felt a bit undone there but I still felt like we could have chased that 200,” said captain Nicholas Pooran.
When Hosein spun one across the right-handed Babar to have him caught at the wicket for only the third ‘duck’ of his T20 career, West Indies were ecstatic especially after choosing to bowl but Rizwan quickly silenced the Caribbean side, putting on 34 for the second wicket with Fakhar Zaman (10) and a precious 105 for the third wicket with Haider.
Rizwan counted 10 fours, reaching his 12th career half-century off 34 balls in the 10th over while Haider, whose first 12 runs required 14 balls, accelerated to notch his third T20I fifty off 28 deliveries with a swat over mid-wicket for six at the end of the 15th over sent down by pacer Smith.
Shepherd broke the stand when he had Rizwan caught at deep mid-wicket by Smith at the start of the 16th but Mohammad Nawaz arrived to belt three fours and two sixes in a 10-ball unbeaten 30, as Pakistan finished strongly.
In reply, Brandon King chipped the first ball of the second over from left-arm spinner Nawaz to Babar at cover, perishing for one in his first international in 13 months and Pooran entertained briefly with a four and two sixes in 18 off 10 balls before losing his off-stump to Wasim’s yorker in the fourth over.
Devon Thomas’s first match for the Caribbean side in nearly a decade ended in disappointment when he was lbw to Wasim for two in the sixth over and Hope followed at the start of the 10, missing a sweep at Shadab and falling lbw at 59 for four after striking four fours.
T20I debutant Shamarh Brooks, reprieved by DRS at the end of the ninth over after being given out lbw to Nawaz, departed to the first ball he faced in the 10th, bowled missing a charge at Shadab without adding to his five.
When debutant Dominic Drakes (5) and Powell fell in quick succession, West Indies were tottering on 88 for seven in the 14th, and it was left to Smith and Shepherd to stage a 46-run, eighth wicket stand and push the total beyond triple figures.