Match: Pakistan v West Indies, 2nd T20I
Date: 24 September, Saturday
Time: 12am SGT (Sunday)/9:30pm IST/5pm BST
Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium
TV Channel: In Singapore, the live coverage of the 2nd T20I between Pakistan and West Indies will be on Ten Cricket.
Overview
Pakistan will take on West Indies in the second Twenty20 International of the three-match series at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on 24 September.
The hosts came up with another dominating performance under their new skipper Sarfraz Ahmed after they crushed England in the one-off T20I at Old Trafford earlier this month.
On Friday, Pakistan stunned the defending World T20 champions by nine wickets and took a 1-0 lead in the series.
West Indies were bundled out for 115 after being put into bat by Sarfraz. Imad Wasim ran through their batting order en route to become the first Pakistan spinner to pick up a five-wicket haul in T20 cricket.
On a slow track, the West Indies batsmen made life difficult for themselves with poor shot selections. Skipper Sarfraz did not hold his spinners back and introduced both Wasim and Mohammad Nawaz inside the powerplay. The top four Caribbean batsmen made the long walk back to the hut after getting out for single-digit scores.
Sarfraz made wise bowling changes and his move to finish Wasim's quota early in the match worked wonders when the left-arm bowler snapped a steady, 25-run stand, that was developing between Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, by removing the latter for 9.
The visitors were reeling at 48 for 8 at one stage before Bravo led the recovery with a 54-ball 55. The all-rounder stitched a 66-run stand with tail-ender Jerome Taylor for the ninth wicket.
However, Pakistan made light work of the target in just 14.2 overs. Babar Azam starred for the hosts with a quickfire half-century while openers Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif continued their impressive form.
The Men in Green are looking pumped up and are primed to seal the series against with a win in Dubai on Saturday. They would want to punch the West Indies out of the series before both teams travel to Abu Dhabi for the third T20I on Tuesday.
On the other hand, West Indies look jolted after being completely outplayed on Friday. A few would have seen this coming from the T20I experts after their top show against MS Dhoni's India in Florida in August.
In the absence of Chris Gayle, it is time for Johnson Charles and Elvin Lewis to adapt to the conditions in Dubai and give them a solid start. Carlos Brathwaite's team needs to focus on building small partnerships if they are looking to save the series. The top order should worry only about preserving wickets as the visitors have depth in their batting line-up to accelerate in the end.
If put into bat again, a good total on the board would definitely help the likes of Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine, who are masters of exploiting slow-paced tracks.
TV listings
Singapore: Ten Cricket
India: Ten 3
Pakistan: PTV Sports
US: Willow TV
South Africa: Super Sport Two
Team News
Pakistan
Possible XI: Sarfraz Ahmed (c & wk), Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Babar Azam, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanvir.
West Indies
Possible XI: Carlos Brathwaite (c), Evin Lewis, Johnson Charles, Marlon Samuels, Andre Fletcher (wk), Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Rovman Powell, Samuel Badree, Sunil Narine, Jerome Taylor
