West Indies again fail

Sat, Sep 24, '16

Before this match, Pakistan had won 24 out of 27 T20Is defending 150-plus. On Saturday, they posted 160, which was 22 more than the average first-innings score at this venue. That meant West Indies had to achieve the highest successful chase to take the series into a decider. On paper, it was advantage Pakistan, but cricket is played out on the field, sometimes on greasy ones because of heavy dew that negates any advantage teams batting first conjure.

Did it affect them? It didn't look like, as yet another timid batting show that lacked application and self-belief resulted in West Indies falling 17 short of the target. It meant Sarfraz Ahmed extended his unbeaten run as T20I captain to three matches.

On these outfields, it isn't unusual to see teams trying to overachieve while batting first in their quest to negate the dew factor. Perhaps the experience of having played their home matches here since 2009 helped Pakistan set a clear mandate. If Shoaib Malik provided the fire through swift foot work and muscular hits in his 28-ball 37, top-scorer Sarfaz proved to be the ice in a 69-run stand off just 46 balls to drive the innings.