Nawaz’s career-best figures seal a 2-0 series win for Pakistan
By our correspondent
MULTAN: It was a day of Pakistan’s left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz who produced career-best figures of 4-18 in his quota of ten overs to enable Pakistan down West Indies by 120 runs and so sealed the three-match ODI series 2-0 with a game in hand.
At the Multan Cricket Stadium, Nawaz made West Indies struggle with his stunning bowling after the visitors had a fiery start with Kyle Myers and Shamarh Brooks showing some magic with the bat after Shaheen Afridi got rid of Shai Hope (4) in his first over.
Kyle Mayers hit Haris Rauf for a six over square-leg before he smashed Mohammad Wasim Junior for two excellent fours and smacked Shaheen Afridi for a super six and at that time it looked that West Indies were well on track while chasing 276.
However Wasim at that stage got rid of Mayers, clean bowled, for a 25-ball 33 to give Pakistan a sort of relief. And it was the turn of Nawaz now to do wonders. He clean bowled Brandon King (0) and after a few overs removed Shamarh Brooks to leave West Indies at 102-4 in the 19th over. Nawaz then sent back Rovman Powel (10) and skipper Nicholas Pooran (25) to leave the visitors in a deep quagmire.
Shadab Khan then trapped Romario Shepherd (1) in front before Wasim removing Alzarri Joseph for six. Shadab then removed Hayden Walsh (1) and Wasim removed Anderson Philip (1) to fold West Indies for 155 in the 33rd over.
Wasim finished with 3-34 while Shadab captured 2-40 in nine overs. After deciding to bat first Fakhar Zaman once again failed to impress as he struggled before falling for a 28-ball 17 to Anderson Philip. At this stage as usual Imam-ul-Haq (72) and skipper Babar Azam (77) did extremely well and shared 120 runs for the second wicket stand with both completing their sixth straight fifties in the ODI format.
Imam got run out as he rushed for a run without looking that his skipper was completely unmoved. Imam hit six fours in his 72-ball knock. Akeal Hosein then got rid of Babar who smashed five fours and one six in his 93-ball. Alzarri Joseph then removed Mohammad Haris for a run-a-ball six to compound Pakistan’s issues as they did not look to get to 300 mark. Hosein then bowled Rizwan for a 23-ball 15 and Nawaz (3) to leave the hosts at 207-6 in the 40th over. Shadab (22) and Khushdil Shah (22) made some runs at this stage before Mohammad Wasim (17*) and Shaheen Afridi (15*) using long handle to enable Pakistan set up a good total of 275-8.
Akeal Hosein (3-52) led West Indies bowling with Alzarri Joseph (2-33) and Anderson Philip (2-50) ably backing the left-arm spinner.
Nawaz was declared as man of the match.