Rovman Powell, Nicholas Pooran set up match-winning score

West Indians 166 for 7 (Pooran 47*, Charles 42, Raza 3-20, Naveed 3-20) beat Emirates Cricket Board XI 144 for 6 (Qasim 46, Badree 3-20) by 22 runs
Scorecard

The West Indians opened their tour of the UAE by overcoming a top-order wobble against an Emirates Cricket Board XI to win the T20 warm-up fixture by 22 runs in Dubai.

Opening batsman Johnson Charles made runs after West Indies chose to bat, but Nos. 2, 3 and 4 failed, leaving the team 48 for 3 in the seventh over. Charles fell in the 11th over, having scored 42 off 32 balls, and the innings was in the hands of two youngsters who were yet to make their international debuts.

The Jamaican Rovman Powell, 23, contributed 38 off 31 balls, relatively sedate compared to the 20-year-old Trinidadian Nicholas Pooran, whose unbeaten 47 took only 23 deliveries. Pooran hit four fours and three sixes in his innings, leading the West Indians to 166 for 7 in 20 overs. The more experienced Carlos Brathwaite and Jason Holder were dismissed for 1 and 3 respectively.

Charles felt the two newcomers played brilliantly: "Pooran especially at the end there, coming and getting us to a solid total. Rovman also played a good innings, in that he helped us recover. Kudos to them. I would just let them know that they have to carry on and be the building block."

On his own innings, Charles said, "It could have been better, but the pitch was a bit on the slow side, it was very dry. So definitely there will have to be some change in the way I play. We still need to get accustomed to the conditions, there's still a bit of jet lag. We have to get past that, put in the training sessions and put in a lot of work"

The defence was spearheaded by the West Indian spinners. The legspinner Samuel Badree struck in the second and fourth overs, and the offspinner Sunil Narine broke a 73-run partnership for the third wicket between Shaiman Anwar and Mohammad Qasim by striking with successive balls. UAE were 92 for 4 and their challenge fizzled when Badree had Qasim stumped for 46 off 54 balls. The home side was restricted to 144 for 6 in 20 overs.

Narine finished with 2 for 21 in four overs, while Badree claimed 3 for 20, the same figures as two ECB XI bowlers - Mohammad Naveed and Ahmed Raza.