Windies caught in Shadab’s web
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC): WEST INDIES were flirting with crisis after plunging to a fifth straight Twenty20 defeat, as Pakistan took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the fourth match series with a dramatic three-run victory here yesterday.
Chasing an uncomplicated 133 for victory at Queen’s Park Oval, West Indies saw their run chase unravel spectacularly, with 18-year-old leg-spinner Shadab Khan once again proving their nemesis with another Man-of-the-Match four-wicket effort.
The hosts were cruising at 60 for in the ninth over behind Marlon Samuels’s top score of 44 but Shadab’s introduction saw four wickets tumble for just 16 runs off 29 deliveries, leaving the innings in strife on 81 for six in the 13th over.
FINAL OVER
But needing 14 runs from the final over, Sunil Narine (9) lifted the Windies hopes when he hammered the first two deliveries of the over from seamer Hasan Ali for boundaries.
Things then took a turn for the worst, however. Narine missed a swat at the third ball and even after Ali sent down a legside wide next delivery, the left-hander failed to connect with the fourth ball, leaving West Indies requiring five off the last two.
Narine was run out off the fifth and Jason Holder, who finished unbeaten on 26 off 17 deliveries, could only muster a single off the final ball.
The defeat followed the Windies’ opening debacle at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown last Sunday when they lost by six wickets, and comes against the backdrop of an embarrassing 3-0 whitewash to Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates last September.
Shadab, who claimed four wickets for seven runs on debut five days ago, finished with four for 14.
Sent in, Pakistan rallied to 132 all out off their 20 overs, despite an innings which never really got off the ground.
Shoaib Malik top-scored with 28, Babar Azam got 27 while tail-ender Wahab Riaz produced a cameo 10-ball 24 at number 10, to get the visitors up to a competitive total.