When World T20 champions West Indies took the field against Pakistan in the first T20I at Dubai, it was expected to be a thrilling contest. Barely 45 minutes into the game, all the expectations of a nail-biting contest came crashing down as the West Indian batsmen crumbled like a pack of cards. Against the slow left-arm spin of Pakistani all-rounder Imad Wasim, the visitors were all at sea.
The visitors were in danger of being humiliated completely, after they were reduced to a paltry 48-8. Wasim was spectacular, to say the least, as his five-wicket haul decimated West Indies. Despite the heroics of the veteran Dwayne Bravo, the Pakistani batsmen had no difficulties in chasing down the total. Post the game, Wasim was lauded by the both the captains for his fine performance.
“I don’t want to just say we didn’t bat well, credit must go to Imad Wasim who bowled fantastically, anytime you get 5 for 14 in an international match you must be doing something right, and to get it in a T20 International is even better,” said West Indian skipper Carlos Brathwaite. “But these things happen. We are an aggressive team and I won’t tell any of the guys in the room to lose their aggression, it is just a matter of being more situation aware going into tomorrow’s game.”
Brathwaite added that Wasim’s stint in the CPL had helped him develop as a bowler. “Imad had a head start on us, playing CPL for Jamaica Tallawahs. He knew our batsmen, and we knew him as well, and planned for him, and on the day his execution was better than ours,” Brathwaite said. “We didn’t execute it the way we wanted to, on some other day those same shots could have gone for boundaries and sixes and if we were 45-50 odd for 1 after six overs setting a beautiful platform to go on and score 140-150 which looked like would have been a winning total on the surface today.”
Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed too was in awe of the all-rounder and lauded him. “Imad is an attacking bowler, he was in great form in the CPL and he knows how to bowl in the Powerplay. Our target was to attack with him.We knew how the pitch will behave, it was skidding. A bit of grass on the pitch helped the spinners too. We made use of that advantage,” Sarfaraz said.