Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim’s five-for helped Pakistan beat West Indies in the first of the three-match T20I series at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Chasing a low target of 116 runs, Pakistan never looked under par against the World T20 champions and easily walked past the finish line with 34 balls and nine wickets to spare.
Babar Azam scored unbeaten 55 off 37 balls while Khalid Latif was unbeaten on 34 off 32.
Samuel Badree was the only bowler to bag a wicket for the Windies when he bowled Sharjeel Khan (22 off 18) in the fourth over.
Earlier, Pakistan restricted West Indies to 115 after opting to bowl first.
Imad proved his captain Sarfraz Ahmed right as he dismissed three batsmen quickly off his left-arm spin.
Other bowlers then chipped in but Imad came back for his second spell and bagged two more scalps to become the first Pakistani spinner to account for five batsmen in a T20I match. He ended his four-over quota with five wickets for only 14 runs.
At one point, the visitors were eight down for only 48 runs but Dwayne Bravo (55) and Jerome Taylor (21) combined to score 66 runs for the ninth wicket (the highest score by any pair at number nine in T20Is).
Sohail Tanvir was the second most successful bowler for Pakistan with two wickets.
Man-of-the-match Imad Wasim: I just go out there and give my 100%, rest is in the hand of Almighty. I just focus on the batsman and stick to the captain’s plan to bowl wicket to wicket.
Carlos Brathwaite: Not a great start. We need to change our plans. These things can happen. We didn’t come to party. We will come out tomorrow and try to make the Windies people proud. We fought hard but we will try to come out tomorrow and put up a better performance. It [the weather] is not going to change but we can, we have to cope with it.
Sarfraz Ahmed: Credit goes to players. Everyone is working hard. Fielding is important, body language is important. We are motivating them. We try to get early wickets with Imad, other bowlers also helped. We are trying to play attacking cricket. We know if we take wickets, then only we can win.
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