Imad, Malik star as Pakistan wins 3-0

Imad Wasim extended his purple patch as he set up Pakistan’s eight-wicket win over West Indies in the third and final Twenty20 International at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday (September 27).

With the win, Pakistan swept the three-match series 3-0, having won the first two matches, both in Dubai, by nine wickets and 16 runs respectively.

The win also meant that Sarfraz Ahmed extended his unbeaten run as T20I captain to four matches, having led Pakistan to a nine-wicket win over England in Manchester earlier this month in his first game in charge.

Imad Wasim set the tone early, with wickets in successive deliveries in his second over after Sarfraz won the toss and opted to field, and Pakistan didn’t look back as it kept West Indies to 103 for 5. It could have been far less had it not been for Marlon Samuels’s unbeaten 42 off 59 balls.

Pakistan’s chase got off to a flying start with Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif putting on a 36-run opening stand inside five overs. Latif was particularly aggressive, smashing three consecutive fours off Jerome Taylor in the third over. Sharjeel hit two fours in his 13-ball 11 before falling to Kesrick Williams, the debutant pacer. Williams struck again in the same over, deceiving Latif with an offcutter that crashed into middle stump.

But there were no hiccups thereafter as Babar Azam (27 in 24 balls) and Shoaib Malik (43 in 34 balls) got Pakistan across the line in 15.1 overs. The two added 68 runs for the third wicket with Malik wrapping up the chase in style with a huge six off Carlos Brathwaite.

The home side was on the money right from the start with Imad snaring Johnson Charles and Chadwick Walton in his second over. Charles attempted a cross-batted shot only to be bowled, while Walton fell to a similar delivery that kept low before hitting off stump.

Samuels, who walked in at No. 3, safely negotiated the hat-trick ball, but there was no end to West Indies’ Power Play misery – it was 25 for 5 and 20 for 3 in first six overs in the two T20Is in Dubai; this time it got to 26 for 3 as Andre Fletcher ran himself out while trying to steal a non-existent single.

The onus of consolidating the innings was on Drawne Bravo and Samuels, two of the most experienced batsmen in the lineup, but the former played the wrong line and fell to Imad, who eventually finished with 3 for 21.

Samuels and Nicholas Pooran tried to get West Indies out of the hole with a 35-run fifth-wicket stand. The duo rebuilt through a mix of ones and twos; Samuels even struck a couple of boundaries off the loose deliveries. The only six of West Indies innings came when Pooran slog-swept Mohammad Nawaz over mid-wicket. But two balls later, he was caught by Malik while trying to replicate the shot.

At 66 for 5 in 12.4 overs, the stage was set for a late flourish from Kieron Pollard. But a brilliant effort from Pakistan’s bowlers on a slow and low pitch ensured Pollard and Samuels never really got going. Their sixth-wicket partnership laboured all the way through for 37 runs in 7.2 overs as West Indies just about managed to breach the three-figure mark but that was too meagre in the end.