Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman and bowlers shine in Pakistan's warm-up match win vs West Indies
Pakistan cruised to a seven-wicket win against the West Indies in their warm-up match ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Pakistan bowlers shone as they restricted West Indies to 130/7, before a fine half-century from Babar Azam and an unbeaten 46 from Fakhar Zaman helped them win their first friendly before the marquee tournament in the UAE and Oman.
West Indies captain Kieron Pollard won the toss in Dubai and opted to bat. However, they struggled to get going and lost opener Andre Fletcher in the third over.
Lendl Simmons fell on the final ball of the powerplay to Shaheen Shah Afridi before Imad Wasim removed Roston Chase. Chris Gayle was soon to follow for a dour 30-ball 20 as he had his stumps cleaned up by Haris Rauf.
Shimron Hetmyer and Nicholas Pooran tried to wrestle momentum back for the Windies, putting on a 30-run stand, but the latter was dismissed by Hasan Ali. Hetmyer also followed suit, for 28 off 24, with the score reading 108/6 at the time.
Skipper Pollard, however, gave their score some respectability as he smashed five consecutive boundaries in the final over before being castled in the last ball of the innings. He finished with 23 off 10.
Hasan Ali was Pakistan's best bowler, with figures of 2/21. Shaheen Shah Afridi and Rauf also picked up two scalps each, while Imad Wasim got one.
Today's ICC T20 World Cup live score with commentary is updated here.
Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman star with the bat for Pakistan
Pakistan made short work of the chase, with captain Babar Azam hitting a half-century. Babar and Mohammad Rizwan got off to a watchful start before the latter was bowled by Ravi Rampaul in the sixth over for 23 off 17.
Fakhar Zaman then joined Babar and the two chipped away at the target. While Babar played the anchor role, Zaman took the attack to the West Indies, scoring at a rapid rate.
Babar Azam brought up his half-century in 40 deliveries. There was a slight blip when Hayden Walsh first outfoxed Babar to have him stumped and then had Mohammad Hafeez caught in the deep off consecutive deliveries.
But it wasn't enough to cause any problems for Pakistan as Zaman steamed on and kept taking on the opposition bowlers. Veteran Shoaib Malik also hit a couple of boundaries and finished unbeaten on 14 off 11.
Fakhar Zaman finished the match with a majestic six with 27 deliveries to spare. He registered a score of 46 off 24 deliveries, striking at 191.66 in a good sign for Pakistan.
Pakistan will next face South Africa in a warm-up game on Wednesday before their first match of the T20 World Cup against India on Sunday.