West Indies ‘did not expect’ to win easy

Defending champions reach World Twenty20 semi-finals with 84-run win over Pakistan.

Dwayne Bravo, the all-rounder, top-scored for West Indies against Pakistan in Dhaka on Tuesday night. Munir uz Zaman / AFP

DHAKA // Defending champions West Indies charged into the World Twenty20 semi-finals with a spectacular 84-run win over Pakistan in a key Super-10 match in Dhaka on Tuesday.

The West Indies recovered from a top-order meltdown to post 166 for six after electing to take first strike, before three wickets each by spin twins Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine skittled Pakistan for 82 in 17.5 overs.

The West Indies, who finished second behind unbeaten India in Group 2, will clash with Group 1 champions Sri Lanka in the first semi-final in Dhaka on Thursday.

India, who won all their four group matches, meet South Africa at the same venue on Friday.

The final will be in Dhaka on Sunday.

It was the first time Pakistan, finalists in the inaugural World T20 in 2007 and champions in 2009, failed to reach the knock-out rounds of the tournament.

The West Indies slumped to 81 for five before captain Darren Sammy and Dwayne Bravo led a dramatic rescue act by adding 71 for the sixth wicket off 32 balls.

Bravo smashed four sixes and two fours in a 26-ball 46, while Sammy remained unbeaten on 42 off 20 balls with five fours and two sixes.

The West Indies plundered 71 runs in the last four overs, taking 21 runs in the 18th bowled by seamer Umar Gul and 24 in the 19th by off-spinner Saeed Ajmal.

Bravo, who was named man of the match, said he would have preferred to share his award with Sammy and Badree.

“We have the bowling to defend any total, but I really did not expect the match to be so easy,” he said. “Pakistan did have our top order in some bother, but then our batting runs deep and we showed that today.

“I think Sammy and Badree were equally deserving of the award. We have the momentum going into the semi-finals and I am confident we will do well there, too.”

Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez apologised to his team’s fans for not doing better in the key game. “I must thank our fans for their support and apologise for letting them down,” he said. “This was obviously not our best performance, but we had the game in control at the start.

“All credit to the West Indies for taking the game away from us. Those four final overs cost us dearly and then we panicked at the start of our chase. It became a very difficult target to chase.”

Pakistan never recovered after Ahmed Shehzad, who scored a century in the previous match against Bangladesh, was leg-before to Krishmar Santokie off the first ball of the innings.

Badree removed Kamran Akmal in the second over, Umar Akmal in the fourth and Shoaib Malik in the sixth to leave Pakistan tottering at 13 for four.

Hafeez (19) and Sohaib Maqsood (18) fell in successive overs to make it 42 for six, before Narine removed Shahid Afridi and Sohail Tanvir in four balls to hasten the end.

The West Indies had lost both openers by the fourth over of their innings, with Chris Gayle stumped off Hafeez for five and Dwayne Smith caught behind off Tanvir for eight.

Lendl Simmons and Marlon Samuel added 39 for the third wicket, but both fell in the 11th over to reduce the West Indies to 67 for four.

It soon became 81 for five as Denesh Ramdin holed out in the deep off left-arm spinner Zulfiqur Babar, but Sammy and Bravo stepped in to play what turned out to be match-winning knocks.

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