Umar Akmal smashed an unbeaten 46 and Pakistan’s spinners restricted the world champion West Indies in an 11—run victory in the second Twenty20 international, clinching the two—match series 2—0 on Sunday.
Akmal anchored Pakistan to 135—7, and West Indies could not recover from the loss of four early wickets to be restricted to 124—9.
Pakistan spinners Saeed Ajmal (2—21) and Zulfiqar Babar (2—37) grabbed four wickets between them to supplement left—arm seamer Sohail Tanvir’s (2—20) two early strikes.
Pakistan won the first match by two wickets. The team has risen to No. 2 in the ICC Twenty20 rankings, behind Sri Lanka. West Indies dropped to No. 4, one spot back from India.
“It was a tough tour, credit goes to the team and the coaches for their hard work,” Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez said. “We did not play well in the last two tours, so we needed this victory.”
Sunday’s victory rounded off Pakistan’s tour of the Caribbean during which it also won the one—day series 3—1.
Pakistan lost 3—2 in the one—day series against South Africa, and last month the team was beaten in all three group matches in the Champions Trophy in England.
On Sunday, Tanvir had Johnson Charles and Marlon Samuels caught behind in his first two overs. Chris Gayle, who had a disappointing ODI series against Pakistan, continued his wretched form to leave West Indies at 3—4 when he got a leading edge off Hafeez.
Lendl Simmons was clean bowled by Shahid Afridi, leaving West Indies lurching on 17—4. Sunil Narine was promoted as a pinch—hitter and struck a quick 28, but was caught in the deep in the 14th over.
With the run—rate creeping above 12 runs an over, Dwayne Bravo (35) added 30 runs with Kieron Pollard (23) before left—arm spinner Babar removed them off successive deliveries after Pollard had hit him for two sixes and two fours off the first four deliveries in the 17th over.
“We lost a lot of wickets in our first six overs, and then it was a difficult task for Pollard and Bravo to come and score at 12—13 runs an over,” West Indies captain Darren Sammy said. “We have different types of players and I can’t tell them how to go about batting. But when you have a difficult pitch, you have to give yourselves a chance and capitalize in the end.”
Earlier, after electing to bat first, Pakistan owed its total to Akmal’s brilliance on a slow wicket after Sammy and legspinner Samuel Badree bowled decent four—over spells.
Akmal’s knock came off 36 balls and featured three fours and a six. He was well supported by opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad, who scored 44 with four boundaries and two sixes.
Akmal added 39 off 29 balls with Shehzad and then put on 26 off 16 deliveries with Babar.
Narine took 3—26, picking up three wickets in his three overs after being hit for 10 runs in his first over.