Pakistan took a 1-0 series lead by a small margin in the second game. After the washed-out first T20I, the series is now effectively a three-match clash and the visitors are only one win away
Pakistan’s top order yet again proved to be the pillars over which the visitors’ success depended upon but it was the bowling that tacitly pulled it back for Pakistan in the second game.
However, the graph of improvement of the lower middle-order batting line-up for Pakistan has plateaued and could be an area of concern before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup later this year. Mohammad Hafeez, who leads the middle-order, has averaged 11.77 in 2021 in 12 appearances while Fakhar Zaman averages 20.33.
On the other hand, West Indies uncharacteristically struggled with changing the gears and chasing down a below-par total. Although, the Windies bowling has seen a lot of positives that exploded the visitors while conceding only 23 and picking up six wickets at the death.
In the second clash, Pakistan got off to a flier with Mohammad Rizwan’s 46 and Babar Azam’s 51. But as the rain interrupted the play and the match resumed, Pakistan crumbled to 157/8 in 20 overs after they looked on track to reach 180 at one stage.
West Indies batters struggled against the spin with Hafeez leading the way. Hafeez returned with the match-winning economical figures of 4-1-6-1 while Shadab Khan conceded only 22 in his four overs that helped Pakistan restrict the hosts to seven runs short of the target.