Samuel Badree spoke this week of Pakistan’s ability to “demolish any opposition”, a comment turned premonition on Friday night as a hapless West Indies were blown away in Dubai.
A combination of Imad Wasim’s five-wicket haul and an intensity that West Indies couldn’t match saw Pakistan romp to a nine-wicket win in the first of three T20Is in the UAE.
For an inexperienced touring outfit it was a miserable evening, resigned to being guests at a banquet catering only for the taste of the near-full crowd of Pakistan supporters on hand to witness an artful feast of Pakistan’s nouvelle Twenty20 cuisine.
Imad’s slow left-armers did the damage from the off, the 27-year-old removing Evin Lewis, Andre Fletcher and Marlon Samuels in his first two overs that read three wickets for eight runs.
A mixture of superb control from the Pakistan spinner and poor shot selections from the West Indies left the visitors reeling.
It wasn’t a slow start from Carlos Brathwaite’s men, they simply didn’t get out of the starting blocks.
And by the time Mohammad Nawaz removed Johnson Charles and debutant Nicholas Pooran nicked off behind, the tourists were 22-5 after just five overs and well on their way to a demoralising opening defeat of the UAE tour.
Despite reaching the UAE over a week prior to these matches, the West Indies batsmen looked baffled by conditions on a typically humid late September evening in Dubai.
Imad exploited the West Indies’ misreading of the pitch perfectly as West Indies batsmen time and again played for spin only to find the ball sliding into their pads, cramping them for space and stopping their long levers from swinging through the line.
Pakistan were a completely different entity, the side moving slickly in the field with an urgency and keenness highlighted by the efforts of captain Sarfraz Ahmed who epitomised Pakistan’s ambitions to embody modern standards of T20 cricket.
Sarfraz moved with the same rapidity that he speaks, tinkering with fields, shuffling his bowlers to great effect and setting the tone for his fielders with both urgency and constant offers of encouragement.
It was pure, unadulterated Sarfraz, infectious in the most scattergun, all-action manner.
The fleeting figures of the hosts moved at a pace West Indies attempted to cultivate themselves but their batsmen were too brazen in their desire to clear the ropes early on and left no momentum on which to rebuild their innings.
At the halfway point of their 20 overs, West Indies were 46-5, their progress slowed to a near halt.
An over later, Imad had his fourth and fifth wickets to end up with a career-best 5-14, leaving the Windies 47-7.
Sunil Narine summed up their haphazard approach with near poetic madness as he was ran-out by Khalid Latif an over later, the Pakistan opener’s execution of skill an equal reflection, albeit mirroring, of how improved Pakistan looked in the field.
Dwayne Bravo’s composure bellied the rest of his team’s struggles as the all-rounder was rewarded for taking his time to get used to the pace of the pitch. He ended up with 55 and thanks to a 66-run partnership with Jerome Taylor (21) for the ninth wicket, West Indies closed on 155 all-out.
It was never going to be enough, Pakistan’s response a composed affair as they knocked off the total with 5.4 overs to spare, Babar Azam’s (55*) first T20I fifty providing the backbone of their chase.
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