short, wide outside off and he's slapped that in front of square. The cover fielder had no chance, for that's how hard it was hit. Back-to-back T20I wins for Pakistan, and Azam has hit the winning boundaries in both of them. This has been a roughshod for Sarfraz's men
West Indies vs Pakistan, 1st T20I at Dubai, Sep 23 2016 - Ball by Ball Commentary
Hope you enjoyed our coverage, folks. Little turnaround time before we're back for the second T20I on Sunday. Conditions will largely be the same. Will West Indies have different plans? Join us to find out. Until then, this is Shashank Kishore saying goodbye from the commentary desk. Cheers!
Presentation:
Sarfraz Ahmed: The players have responded really well. We've focused a lot on fielding and positive body language. We're using Imad Wasim as a strike bowler and he's done well so far. The other spinners have supported him well. We want to play attacking cricket, the mindset is always to take wickets.
Carlos Brathwaite: I don't think we had a good enough start. This wasn't one of our better performances, but we won't stop our guys from playing positive cricket at the top of the order. We'll have a talk about handling spin, their plans won't change much. We've to start better to allow Pollard, Bravo and myself to come in with five overs left.
Imad Wasim is the Player of the Match for his five-wicket haul. "I don't try to experiment. I just keep trying to bowl wicket-to-wicket." Clearly he's a man of few words.
10.55pm It started off as a no-contest. Then Bravo and Taylor gave West Indies a fighting chance. Badree knocked Sharjeel over to add to the interest, but then it turned into one-way traffic. Babar Azam turned the heat on West Indies with a sparkling exhibition of stroke play, while Khalid Latif, subdued initially, found his feet to polish off the chase. As far as chases go, it can't get more clinical than this. West Indies will have less than 24 hours to regroup ahead of the second T20I. But the man of the moment is clearly Imad Wasim who became the first Pakistan spinner to take a five-wicket haul in T20Is. He's been flanked by his team-mates, and why not? Join us shortly for the presentation.
Faisal: "Imad Wasim is not first Pakistani to take 5 wicket haul in T20, Before him Umar Gul took 5 wickets against NZ." I am sure Umar Gul was a fast bowler.
slashes one into the third man region where Bravo misfields to palm the ball into the boundary. Maiden T20I fifty for the impressive Babar Azam
bunts that off the back foot to cover
he's hit that into Sharjah, believe me! Gets to the pitch of the ball and smacks it across the line over wide long-on. Terrific hit
gets forward and blocks
how late has he played that? Literally off the keeper's gloves. Just enough width for him to use the depth of the crease and then open the bat face late to steer it behind point. Badree dived over the ball to give away easy runs
makes a bit of room and cuts the short ball to deep point
looks to hit it too hard, didn't have the room to drive, rolls off the inner half of the bat back to the bowler
Narine is back
cross-court forehand from Azam. Slaps that from outside off towards deep midwicket. Both feet were in the air or nearly, when he made contact
authoritative pull, straight to Lewis at deep midwicket
surprised by a quicker bouncer that thuds into his gloves as he shapes to pull, lands short of the bowler on his followthrough
that should make him feel much, much better. This was in his half, a very full ball that didn't have much pace on it. Mid-off was inside the ring too, and so it was safe for him to hit him down the ground with a straight bat, one bounce into the ropes.
too full on the pads, tucked to short fine for an easy single
there's no dip on the full toss this time, Azam was waiting for it and then muscled it over midwicket. Too easy
thumped off the back foot into the gap at sweeper cover, excellent work there. Was two for most parts but the throw was strong
had to wait an eternity for that delivery to reach him, swiveled too early but somehow managed to get some bat on the pull, Narine stops it at short fine
delivers this from way behind the stumps, too full on off, driven hard to sweeper cover
slower delivery on off from wide of the crease, pulled across the line towards deep midwicket
hops across and punches one back to the bowler
sliding down leg, bounces in front of Fletcher as he somehow manages to stop that