Daily Times

No one was expecting that Pakistan would be able to whitewash West Indies in a three-match Twenty20 international series. But Pakistan, led by Sarfraz Ahmad, kept their unpredictability tag intact when they eased to an eight-wicket victory against their rivals in the third and final contest on Tuesday night in Abu Dhabi, completing a clean sweep of the series against the world champions. The West Indies’ top order stuttered for the third successive time in the series against the left-arm spin of Imad Wasim (3 for 21), being restricted to 103 for 5. Pakistan raced to 108 for 2 in 15.1 overs to complete their first ever 3-0 rout in the three-match series. Shoaib Malik led the run-chase with unbeaten 43 which included a winning six off captain Carlos Brathwaite. Pakistan won the first two matches of the series by nine wickets and 16 runs respectively at Dubai and will now meet the West Indies in the three-match one-day international series, starting Friday. No doubt, credit goes to the entire team, particularly Imad who ran through the Windies batting lineup. The Pakistan bowlers restricted West Indies in all three matches on good batting tracks under humid conditions in the UAE. It was pleasing to see the players, regardless of their experience at the international level, standing up to the task. Both junior and senior players performed and contributed, a sign of a good team and professionalism.

West Indies never got a competitive total in the series and were outplayed by Pakistan in all three games. Pakistan exposed the World T20 champions’ weaknesses in conditions not conducive to big hitting. A lot of this was down to Pakistan’s bowling. The spinners hit an awkward, short-of-good-length area and attacked the stumps, the ideal strategy for pitches with low bounce, denying the batsmen the opportunity to get on the front foot while also imperilling the horizontal-bat shots.

In typical T20 conditions, it is almost essential for batting teams to take risks. But West Indies didn’t try that approach and caved in meekly. When they won the World T20 earlier this year, West Indies’ only really struggled in two games, a narrow win against South Africa and a defeat to Afghanistan. Both games came in Nagpur, the venue with the largest outfield and most spin-friendly pitch of the tournament. The outfields in the UAE are also larger, and while the pitches didn’t offer much turn, they didn’t give the batsmen much bounce or pace to work with. This meant West Indies would need to look outside their usual T20 template to find a trustworthy run-scoring method. At the same time, all did not go well for the West Indies after winning the World Twenty20 title. World Twenty20 winning captain Darren Sammy was replaced by Brathwaite while successful coach Phil Simmons was sacked.

The clean sweep over the world champions is the first step towards building a formidable Pakistan outfit for the future. Pakistan have been struggling after being ousted in the first round of the World Twenty20 held in India in March-April this year that forced the then skipper Shahid Afridi to step down. Sarfraz, who was handed over the leadership, has won all four matches – also beating England at Manchester earlier this month. It was heartening performance from Sarfraz and his charges who showed brilliant skill and temperament. If we want to become a good team then we have to show this kind of consistency.