Shehzad stars in Pak’s win
Ahmed Shehzad made a welcome return to form in guiding Pakistan to a seriesclinching seven-wicket victory over the West Indies in the fourth and final match of their T20 International series at the Queen’s Park Oval on Sunday.
Facing a modest target of 125, the opener stroked his way to 53, ensuring there were to be no alarms as the visitors rebounded from a heavy defeat suffered the day before which gave the West Indies hope of squaring the series.
Shehzad put on 70 for the second wicket with Babar Azam (38) to eliminate any prospect of the home side pulling off the upset. However, both fell to the pace of Kesrick Williams with victory in sight and it was left to the experienced pair of Shoaib Malik and skipper Sarfraz Ahmed to formalise the result with an over to spare.
Excellent seam bowling by Pakistan limited the West Indies to 124 for eight batting first and set the stage for the batsmen’s romp to victory to complete a 3-1 series triumph and claim a potentially significant psychological advantage ahead of the three-match one-day international series in Guyana starting on Friday.
Hasan Ali and Rumman Raees, replacing fellow left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir from the previous match, displayed admirable accuracy and discipline, combining for three important wickets and also delivering three maiden overs.
It is the first time ever that Pakistan managed to bowl as many as three maidens in a T20 international and also the first occasion the West Indies, the reigning World T20 champions conceded three maidens when batting in the game’s shortest format.
PAKISTAN RISE TO 4TH IN ICC T20 RANKINGS
After winning the four match series against West Indies, Pakistan have moved to the fourth spot in the latest ICC T20I team rankings.
Pakistan are now ahead of England and just a point behind third-ranked South Africa.
West Indies started the series in fourth position on 116 points while Pakistan had begun in sixth position on 113 points.
The table is headed by New Zealand (127), which leads 2007 winner India by three points South Africa is third on 117 points. 2010 champion England is between Pakistan and the West Indies in fifth position.