Multan: Mohammad Nawaz's four-wicket haul and skipper Babar Azam's 77-run knock helped Pakistan in defeating West Indies by 120 runs in Multan on Friday. With the win, Pakistan claimed an unassailable 2-0 lead over West Indies in their three-match ODI series. Apart from Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim bagged three wickets while Shadab Khan scalped two wickets, which put the joint effort of West Indies' Shamarh Brooks and Kyle Mayers in vain. Chasing 276, West Indies had a shaky start as they lost their opener, Shai Hope, with 4 runs on board in the first over of the innings. Kyle Mayers tried to anchor the innings with Shamarh Brooks as they smashed West Indies bowlers all around the ground.
Mayers was ruthless on Pakistan's fast bowlers, trashing them for four fours and two sixes in a 25-ball 33 before Mohammad Wasim disturbed bowled him after scoring 33 runs in the 10th over. New batter Brandon King fell cheaply without even scoring a run to Mohammad Nawaz's delivery. Brooks continued the carnage on Pakistan bowlers and hammered them all around the ground.
Nawaz gave his team a big breakthrough as he dismissed Brooks who fell short 8 runs from his half-century. After Brooks' wicket, West Indies struggled to play against the great bowling of Pakistan and lost their wickets at a regular interval. Mohammad Wasim again delivered a great spell and picked the wicket of Anderson Phillip to bowl out the visitors on 155 to clinch huge 120 runs win in the second ODI. Earlier, elected to bat first, Pakistan's Fakhar Zaman failed to score big again as he was dismissed for a 28-ball 17 but Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam stitched a 120-run partnership for the second wicket that proved to be the foundation of Pakistan's 275 for eight. Imam smashed 72 runs with the help of six fours before his innings ended after Babar chose to look at the ball instead of his partner which caused him to run out. Later Babar was caught and bowled by the left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein after scoring a 93-ball 77 that included five fours and a six. Babar's wicket produced three wickets of Mohammad Rizwan (15), Mohammad Haris (6) and Mohammad Nawaz (3) for the visitors. For the West Indies, Hosein picked three for 52, while Alzarri Joseph and Phillip equally shared two wickets each conceding 33 and 50 runs, respectively.
Brief score: Pakistan 275/8 (Babar Azam 77, Imam-ul-Haq 72; Akeal Hosein 3-52) vs West Indies 155 (Shamarh Brooks 42, Kyle Mayers 33; Mohammad Nawaz 4-19).—ANI