Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim (5/14) became only the second Pakistan bowler to take a five-wicket haul in Twenty20 cricket, and helped his side draw first blood with a landside nine-wicket win against West Indies in Dubai in the first of two Twenty20 Internationals on Friday. Pakistan opted to field first and hardly put a foot wrong, bowling out West Indies for 115. In reply, rookie batsman Babar Azam controlled the chase, scoring an unbeaten 55 from 37.
The Windies were in all kinds of tatters at 25/5 at the end of the Powerplay overs. The wickets continued to tumble as Carlos Brathwaite's side faced embarrassment at one stage. Dwayne Bravo (55 from 54) and Jerome Taylor (21 from 22) built a scrappy but crucial 66-run partnership for the ninth wicket to take their side to a respectable score. The duo got together at the crease when West Indies were at an abysmal 48/8 in the 12th over.
Sharjeel Khan eased the Pakistan nerves with a couple of big hits in the early overs before Azam steered the chase. The West Indian spin kings, Sunil Narine and Samul Badree were ineffective during the Powerplay. Dew played its part and West Indies' fielding was surprisingly poor.
After putting the visitors into bat, Sarfraz Ahmed started with spin and reaped its rewards in the first over of the game as Evin Lewis holed out in the deep. Almost everything went wrong for West Indies post that as wickets fell thick and fast. Most of the dismissals had the batsmen throwing their wickets away with poorly executed slogs. There were cleverly worked out dismissals too: Marlon Samuels was outfoxed by a quicker delivery that trapped him leg-before.
When Wasim was done with his overs, Pakistan let their guard down and the experienced head of Bravo saved West Indies from the blushes. There were plenty of edges, near-misses and lofted shots that eluded the fielders as the West Indians scampered over the 100-run mark. Sohail Tanvir came back to polish off the tail.
Pakistan barely broke into a sweat during the chase. After a fine start, Sharjeel Khan chopped on but the patient Khalid Latif (34 from 32) and Azam made toyed with the bowling attack to register their second 9-wicket win in T20 cricket. They got there with 34 balls to spare.
Brief scores:
West Indies 115 in 19.3 overs (Dwayne Bravo 55, Jerome Taylor 21; Imad Wasim 5/14, Sohail Tanvir 2/26) lost to Pakistan 116/1 in 14.2 overs (Babar Azam 55 not out, Khalid Latif 34 not out; Samuel Badree 1/27) by nine wickets.
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