ICC World Twenty20 2014: West Indies cruise past Pakistan to reach semifinals

West Indies annihilated Pakistan to reach semis in World T20

Match-saving innings from Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy, and some splendid bowling performance from West Indies took them to a comprehensive 84-run win over Pakistan in the last match of the Group 2 at Dhaka.

Pegged back by top order failure, West Indies never looked like getting close to 150, but a splendid partnership between Sammy and Bravo helped West Indies to post 166 runs.

Pakistan, in their essay, kept losing wickets at regular intervals and finally collapsed to 82 to hand West Indies a comprehensive win. With this win, West Indies qualified for the semi-finals and will play against Sri Lanka in the first semi-final at Dhaka on April 3.

After winning the toss, West Indies had no hesitation in batting first. There was no dew in the last match between India and Australia. India’s spinners were gripping the ball nicely and hence Sammy felt that runs the board is critical in a knock-out stage. West Indies, however, didn’t get off to a solid start as they found it difficult to tackle the Pakistan spinners. Hafeez, cleverly, opened with spinners to control the run-flow. Dwayne Smith and Chris Gayle were unable to find boundaries constantly in the first couple of overs.

Gayle didn’t last long enough as he was dismissed by Hafeez for 5. Lendl Simmons, who joined Smith, gave some momentum for West Indies as he struck a glorious boundary off Hafeez towards the point region. But the West Indies failed to capitalize on that as they lost Smith for 8 in the next over. With both explosive openers gone, West Indies’ hopes of getting 150 were under doubt.

But Simmons batted brilliantly and took the pressure off Samuels. Both being explosive players, had the ability to switch on the gears when needed. At the time, West Indies needed a good partnership to push Pakistan on to the backfoot. Simmons and Samuels looked fluent, but couldn’t capitalize on the start they got.

But Bravo stuck it out with Sammy to propel the West Indies innings. After the wicket of Ramdin in the 14th over, West Indies would have hoped for a score around 140-run mark. But the duo of Bravo and Sammy were excellent in the last five overs, targeting Ajmal in the 19th over which went for 24 runs. The duo had a clear plan about the target.

Dwayne Bravo was awarded the Man of the Match award for his 26-ball 46

When they walked in, they rotated the strike well. They started phasing the innings well. Once they settled, they dominated the Pakistan bowling attack. With Sammy in good touch, West Indies murdered the Pakistan bowlers in the last five overs which cost 82 runs for the loss of 1 wicket. West Indies finally managed 166 runs for the loss of 6 wickets off the allotted 20 overs.

Pakistan’s bowling performance was not on top of things. Pakistan’s key bowler Ajmal was wicketless, but Afridi was economical. Rest of them were hammered around the park and none of the bowlers’ economy rate was under 5.00

Chasing 167, Pakistan knew they had to tackle the West Indies spinners. With no dew, the spinners were gripping the ball which made life difficult for Pakistan batsmen. Krishmar Santokie struck in his first over to remove Shehzad, who hit a century against Bangladesh, for nought.

Samuel Badree removed Kamran Akmal in the next over and from there on, the wickets started to fall for Pakistan regularly and none of them bothered to stay at the wicket to build a meaningful partnership. Perhaps they didn’t fancy the spin of Narine and Badri, who took 6 wickets in 8 overs.

Pakistan crumbled in the chase and only four batsmen managed to enter the double-figure mark and they finally ended up losing by a big margin.

With the defeat, Pakistan are out of the tournament and West Indies will play Sri Lanka in the first semi-final. India will be taking on South Africa in the second semi-final at Dhaka on Friday.