West Indies Give Late Onslaught
Credit must go to the West Indies for the way they fought back, and they will feel confident of winning two more matches to retain the World T20 title.
Hafeez had a fantastic record already against Gayle, and today proved no different, as his first ball to the master batsman beat the outside edge and Kamran Akmal completed the stumping. Lendl Simmons came out attacking straight away, smashing Hafeez for two boundaries at the end of the 3rd over. Meanwhile, Tanvir was regularly beating the right handers outside the off stump, and eventually found the edge of Dwayne Smith’s bat and Akmal once again made no mistake.
Simmons continued the charge though, taking ten off Zulfiqar Babar’s first over, but two good overs from Tanvir and Afridi kept the scoring rate well under control. Gul’s first over went for 8 including an swat for 6 over long on by Simmons. Afridi and Ajmal continued to apply the pressure, and it eventually told as the batsmen went for a risky single. A driect hit from Umar Gul found Simmons short, before Samuels was bowled looking to cut off Afridi. After 11 overs, West Indies were struggling on 69/4. Afridi bowled a tight last over to finish with excellent figures of 1-23 from his four overs, before Babar got his 1st wicket as Ramdin was caught in the deep. This brought
This brought the experienced duo of Sammy and Bravo together and that’s when the fireworks begun for the West Indies. First Ajmal was taken for 12 before 21 came from the 18th over bowled by Umar Gul. Ajmal was then hit for 3 sixes and a four as 24 came off the 19th. Bravo was run out in the final over but another 14 runs were taken. In all, West Indies made 82 from the final 5 overs which pushed them to a more than competitive total of 166/6.
Shoaib Malik’s stay at the crease was brief as Badree got a 3rd wicket thanks to another Ramdin stumping. Sohaib Maqsood came in and hit the first boundary of the innings, incredibly in the 7th over, but Pakistan were falling well behind the run rate and after 10 overs needed over 13 an over.
Andre Russell ended Hafeez’s torrid stay, as the batsman was caught by Gayle for 19 off 32 balls. Sohaib looked to do the impossible but it was all too much against a bowler of Narine’s class, and Ramdin completed another stumping. Sohail Tanvir and Shahid Afridi hit some lusty blows but it still wasn’t enough. Both fell in the 16th over and shortly after the innings came to end as the final two wickets fell without a fight.
