Pakistan played good all-round cricket to beat world champion West Indies by 16 runs in the second Twenty20 here Saturday, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Skipper Sarfraz Ahmed hit a rapid 32-ball 46 not out to guide Pakistan to 160-4 before pacemen Sohail Tanvir (3-13) and Hasan Ali (3-49) restricted the West Indies to 144-9 at Dubai Stadium. Pakistan had won the first match — also in Dubai — by nine wickets Friday. The victory over the world champion= gave Pakistan reasons to smile in its campaign to build a new team after it thumped England, also by nine wickets, in Manchester earlier this month. Pakistan was ousted in the first round of the World Twenty20 held in India in April this year, forcing Shahid Afridi to step down as captain. Pakistan's unassailable lead leaves the third and final match in Abu Dhabi Tuesday of academic interest. Tanvir rocked the West Indies top order with the wickets of Evin Lewis (three) and Marlon Samuels (one) before he later dismissed Nicholas Pooran (four). He also completed 50 wickets in the shortest format and now has 52 victims in 53 matches. Afridi is the highest wicket-taker in Twenty20 cricket with 97 while two other Pakistanis, fast bowler Umar Gul and spinner Saeed Ajmal, have 85 each. Sunil Narine top-scored with 30 while Andre Fletcher made 29 but the West Indies for the second day failed to find the batting skills which earned them two World Twenty20 titles, the first in 2012. Ali dismissed Fletcher, Kieron Pollard (18) and Carlos Brathwaite (eight) in a daring spell of bowling. Narine hit four boundaries and a six during his 17-ball knock but 74 runs in the last five overs proved too much for the champion. Ahmed said the series win means a lot to this young team. "We have made good strides and it's awesome to win the series against the champion," said Ahmed who has won three in three since taking captaincy. Brathwaite lamented poor batting by the West Indies. "We didn't come to the party as we would have liked," said Brathwaite. Akmal, Shafiq recalled Pakistan middle-order batsmen Umar Akmal and Asad Shafiq have been recalled for the three-match One-Day International series against the West Indies in the United Arab Emirates. Sharjah will host the first two ODIs on Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 while the third ODI will be played at Abu Dhabi on Oct. 5. Akmal has missed Pakistan's last eight ODI series after he was dropped following the 2015 World Cup due to inconsistent performances and indiscipline. But the hard-hitting middle-order batsman forced his way back into the national squad when he top scored in the recent National T20 Cup and also played in the Twenty20 series against the West Indies. Squad: Azhar Ali (captain), Sharjeel Khan, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, Umar Akmal, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Nawaz, Imad Wasim, Yasir Shah, Rahat Ali, Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali and Sohail Khan. — Agencies
