Brilliant Babar, Talat take Pakistan 2-0 up in Windies series

An unbeaten 58-ball 97 by Man-of-the-Match Babar Azam and a maiden half-century by Sunday's debutant hero Hussain Talat helped Pakistan clinch the three-match T20I series 2-0 at the National Stadium on Monday.

West Indies were bowled out for 123, after Pakistan posted their highest-ever T20I total of 205 in the second match.

After facing a 143-run thrashing in the opening T20I, West Indies tried to put up a fight after losing Andre Fletcher for just 1 run to Mohammad Nawaz. Chadwick Walton resisted bravely with a 29-ball 40, but fell to Shadab Khan with Windies at 50-2 (8.1 overs).

Shadab struck again to remove Marlon Samuels 12 (22) with a catch by Asif Ali near the boundary. Wicketkeeper-batsman Denesh Ramdin, after failing to click in the first T20I, hit out at the Pakistani bowling before departing for 21 runs off 20.

Mohammad Amir cleaned up the middle-lower order with wickets of skipper Jason Mohammed 15 (18), Powell 3 (4), and Paul 17 (10). Emrit was run out for 1. Hasan Ali knocked out Williams' stumps. Hussain Talat took two wickets, including the last one, to hand Pakistan an 82-run victory.

Babar Azam fell just short of his maiden T20I hundred as he reached his best T20 score of 97*, while Hussain Talat smashed 63 from 41 balls to take Pakistan to their highest-ever total in T20 internationals, after the home team won the toss and chose to bat.

Pakistan lost opener Fakhar Zaman for run-a-ball 6 in the second over of the match. But they lost no momentum as both Babar Azam and Hussain Talat anchored the innings and brought Pakistan back on course.

Talat's Islamabad United teammate Asif Ali, who was out for a disappointing 1 run in his debut T20I, hit a couple of powerful boundaries before getting caught in the deep at 14 (8).

Shoaib Malik contributed 17 runs from 7 balls. For West Indies, debutant Odean Smith, Emrit and Williams took a wicket each.

Pakistan team was unchanged from the first T20I. An already depleted West Indies suffered another blow, with their bowler Veerasammy Permaul ruled out of the remaining games due to an ankle injury.

In the first T20I on Sunday, Pakistan thrashed the West Indies by 143 runs to record the second-largest margin win in the shortest format of the game.

The third and final T20I will be played at the same venue on April 3, Tuesday.

Playing XI

Pakistan XI: Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Sarfraz Ahmed (c, wk), Hussain Talat, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali

West Indies XI: Jason Mohammed (c), Andre Fletcher, Rovman Powell, Marlon Samuels, Keemo Paul, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Kesrick Williams, Odean Smith, Chadwick Walton, Rayad Emrit, Samuel Badree