Pakistan hung on against late charge from Romario Shepherd to beat West Indies by nine runs in the second Twenty20 for an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series on Tuesday.
Shepherd, needing 23 runs in the last over, dismissed Harris Rauf for 13, but the West Indies team was out on the last ball when the fast bowler clean bowled number 11 batsman Oshane Thomas.
West Indies were all out for 163 in reply to Pakistan’s 172-8.
PAK vs WI, 2nd T20I: Highlight
Pakistan were only 141-7 after 18 overs, but Shadab Khan scored an unbeaten 28 off 12 balls to give them a defendable total. This proved to be the difference.
Captain Babar Azam said, ‘Shadab had a very good ending. “The catch is for the spinners in the second innings, which is why we wanted to bat first.”
Fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi (3-26) had West Indies on the mat at 131-8 when he took three wickets in the 17th over.
Odion Smith was pulled brilliantly over the edge of the boundary by diving Asif Ali, Dominic Drakes, who made his debut on Monday in West Indies’ 63-run defeat, trailed Afridi, and the left-arm pacer was on the next ball. He clean bowled Hayden Walsh.
Shepherd denied Afridi a hat-trick and his career-best 35 off 19 balls astonished West Indies on the brink of a comeback, but eventually he was given much to do with little support .
“Difficult for us (but) a big improvement from yesterday,” said West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran. “It felt like we lost here because of silly mistakes, irresponsible even myself. We tried our best to execute the plans and it’s our (top order’s) responsibility to take the game forward.
Opener Brandon King (67) scored his maiden T20I half-century but legspinner Shadab Khan (0-22) did not allow him to score freely in the middle overs. When King was deep out in the 16th over off Rauf, he was only the fifth man. But Afridi’s three-wicket haul in the next over confirmed that the momentum was back with Pakistan.
Earlier, Pakistan’s batting depth was again visible even after captain Babar, who won the toss and elected to bat, still could not go ahead and was dismissed for just 7 runs.
Left-arm spinner Akil Hossein stood up for West Indies in an unchanged spell of four overs and stumped Fakhar Zaman, but several other batsmen fled.
Mohammad Rizwan scored 38, Iftikhar Ahmed scored 32 and Haider Ali scored 31 runs.
However, it was Shadab’s stormy knock including three sixes in the last two overs that gave Pakistan enough runs.
The third and final T20 will be played at the same ground in Karachi on Thursday.