Shadab Khan picked up the man of the match for his 4 for 14. © AFP
For a second time in as many games, West Indies were undone by the guile and deception of the 18-year-old leg spinner Shadab Khan. Marlon Samuels, the two-time World T20-winning batsman even attempted some intimidation tactics on the youngster during a quickfire innings of 44. But Shadab showed he had the spunk and the stomach to get involved in a staredown and matched that with returns of 4 for 14 in Pakistan's tense three-run win at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad in a game of confrontations and collisions.
The visitors successfully defended a measly 132 to extend their recent dominance over West Indies. Sarfraz Ahmed's unbeaten run as captain of the T20 side also stretched to six games in the process.
Despite Samuels's early aggression in the small chase and the Shadab heroics that followed, the contest simmered along wonderfully to move towards a photo finish. Fourteen runs were required off the final Hasan Ali over, which was quickly slashed down to six from four with two nonchalant swings of the blade from Sunil Narine.
The 22-year-old Hasan then turned to bowling off-cutters as Narine played and missed two deliveries either side of a wide. The fifth ball resulted in Narine's run-out, leaving even the well-set Jason Holder (26* off 17) needing a six to win or a four to tie the contest. He could only dig out a full-length delivery down the ground for a single, sparking jubilant celebrations in the Pakistan camp.
Like with their fielding performance, West Indies' chase swung between the sublime and the ludicrous. Evin Lewis was run out in bizarre fashion early on despite technically going past the popping crease at the non-strikers end. His feet were off the ground and his bat had slipped off his hand during an attempt to avoid a collision with a fielder backing up for the overthrow. The dressing room wasn't pleased but those were the rules.
Another collision not too long after, involving Ahmed Shehzad and Chadwick Walton, turned a little more serious, requiring the summoning of the paramedics and an ambulance.
Shehzad, who'd charged in from backward point to field a delivery, found himself in the path of an onrushing Walton and took a kneww to the back of his neck. After initial treatment, the Pakistan opener was fitted with a neck brace and stretchered off in an ambulance. The worries however were allayed a few overs later when Shehzad took the field once more.
But by then, Samuels had set himself up to power West Indies' chase almost single-handedly. In a bid to unsettle the spinners on a conducive surface, the senior batsman launched a serious counter-attack. A 19-run over of Imad Wasim took the hosts to 60 for 1 after eight overs.
Shadab then sprung into action of his own. A googly cleaned up Walton. In his next over, the leggie spun one past Kieron Pollard and had him stumped before cleaning up a befuddled Rovmann Powell for a first-ball duck. Hasan Ali took Lendl Simmons out LBW with an inswinger. Samuels attempted to play off Shadab's final over but another googly found his outside edge on its way to the keeper, handing West Indies their biggest blow. From 60 for 1, they fell to 81 for 6.
Even with the required rate creeping up past the eight-run mark, the hosts trusted their boundary-hitting abilities to bail them out in the small chase. It nearly did as captain Carlos Brathwaite and Holder stitched a vital 33-run stand before a 148kmph Wahab Riaz full delivery breached Brathwaite's attempts to mow the ball to cow corner. The equation reduced from 30 off three to 19 off two before Wahab gave Ali a healthy cushion of 14 to defend in the final over.
Perhaps, Wahab's most telling strikes in the game came in the earlier innings when he combined with Shadab to put on a 36-run stand for the ninth wicket that gave Pakistan four more runs than the average T20I score at the venue. Wahab muscled two sixes and a four in his 10-ball 24 that tilted the momentum in the visitors' favour right at the very end despite an admirable bowling effort from West Indies, who opted to field.
Only Babar Azam (27 off 28) and Shoaib Malik (28 off 20) showed any control on the wicket as Pakistan struggled to force the pace on the wicket. Samuel Badree struck in the first over to remove Kamran Akmal (0) and then returned to remove debutant Fakhar Zaman in his frugal returns of 2 for 14. Narine bowled his mixed bags to claim 3 for 22 and captain Brathwaite also added three wickets ( 3 for 37). His figures, however, bore the brunt of several fiedling lapses, all of which cost the hosts dear at the end.
Brief scores: Pakistan 132 in 20 overs (Shoaib Malik 28, Babar Azam 27; Sunil Narine 3-22) beat West Indies 129/8 in 20 overs (Marlon Samuels 44, Jason Holder 26*; Shadab Khan 4-14) by three runs.
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