Hat-trick for Sarfraz as Pakistan seal series with emphatic win

KARACHI: It’s been dream captaincy debut for Sarfraz Ahmed as the aggressive stumper completed a hat-trick of victories on Saturday night after having taken the command of Pakistan’s T20 squad earlier this month.

With Sarfraz smashing a match-winning 46*, Pakistan overcame a few late hiccups to beat the West Indies by 16 runs, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Sarfraz hit a rapid 32-ball 46 not out to guide Pakistan to 160-4 before pacemen Sohail Tanvir (3-13) and Hasan Ali (3-49) restricted the West Indies to 144-9 in Dubai.

Pakistan had won the first match by nine wickets on Friday.

The victory over the world champions gave Pakistan reasons to smile in their campaign to build a new team after they thumped England, also by nine wickets, in Manchester earlier this month.

Pakistan were ousted in the first round of the World Twenty20 held in India in April this year, forcing Shahid Afridi to step down as captain.

Pakistan’s unassailable lead leaves the third and final match in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday (tomorrow) of academic interest.

Tanvir rocked the West Indies top order with the wickets of Evin Lewis (3) and Marlon Samuels (1) before he later dismissed Nicholas Pooran (4).

He also completed 50 wickets in the shortest format and now has 52 victims in 53 matches.

Sunil Narine top-scored with 30 while Andre Fletcher made 29 but the West Indies for the second day failed to find the batting skills which earned them two World Twenty20 titles, the first in 2012.

Ali dismissed Fletcher, Kieron Pollard (18) and Carlos Brathwaite (8) in a daring spell of bowling.

Narine hit four boundaries and a six during his 17-ball knock but 74 runs in the last five overs proved too much for the champions.

Sarfraz said that the series win means a lot to this young team. “We have made good strides and it’s awesome to win the series against the world champions,” said Sarfraz.

“The conditions were tough because of the dew. The ball was slipping, but we finished it well. It is a great sign for Pakistan cricket,” he added.

“We didn’t expect to win the series two-nil, all credit goes to the boys. If you look at the way we played, Khalid Latif got the innings off to a good start, and he stayed to the end, we are trying to develop this in the team, and encourage players who get a good start to continue to the end. Just like Khalid started, Shoaib Malik kept the innings steady and then I finished things in the end. Similarly in the bowling Sohail Tanvir bowled very well, and he was well supported by Imad Wasim and even Hasan Ali the young bowler who despite hard conditions managed well, and Wahab Riaz bowled well too. All credit to the boys who have worked hard with a focus on their fitness,” he said.

West Indies’ batting coach Toby Radford rued another poor batting display from his side. Having lost the series, Radford said that West Indies couldn’t counter Pakistan’s game plan of spin on a ground with a slow track and big boundaries. Poor starts in the Powerplay didn’t help their cause, he added.

“Clearly the game plan from Pakistan has been to have slow wickets to bowl a lot of spin and have very big boundaries. West Indies are known to be a big, six-hitting and boundary-hitting side, normally play on quicker pitches and slightly smaller grounds. But it’s up to us to find a way around that.

“Pakistan have bowled well, they have actually fielded well. When they batted, they showed on a slow wicket and a big outfield that it’s actually all about knocking the ball into gaps and doing a lot of running. They ran a lot of twos tonight which I think really stretched us, and I don’t think it was ever going to be a game for lots of boundaries because I don’t think it’s that type of surface and that type of outfield.”

West Indies captain Brathwaite lamented poor batting by the West Indies. “We didn’t come to the party as we would have liked,” said Brathwaite who replaced World Twenty20 winning captain Darren Sammy last month.

“It is what it is. We should have batted well in the first six-seven overs. As a result, Pakistan are the series winners.”

Earlier Pakistan scored at a fast pace after they were put into bat. Skipper Sarfraz hit a rapid 46 not out and added 69 runs for the third wicket with Shoaib Malik (37 off 28 balls) to lift Pakistan.