After two defeats which saw them fall at the feet of Nepal, West Indies finally found their feet and responded with a superb victory to end the T20 International series on a high at Sharjah International Cricket Stadium.
Met with a green pitch which helped the faster bowlers, Windies bowled out the Nepal Rhinos for 122 off 19.5 overs. Looking more confident, the visitors responded with 123 without loss off 12.2 overs to record a comprehensive victory by 10 wickets with 46 balls to spare.
This final win, however, could not hide the hurt of losing the bilateral series 2-1, after back-to-back defeats last Saturday by 19 runs and on Monday by 90 runs.
Left-arm seamer Ramon Simmonds, in his second appearance, made all the difference. He took four wickets for 15 runs from three overs to wreck the Nepal batting.
Surprisingly, he was the seventh bowler introduced into the attack and struck early when he had skipper Rohit Paudel caught behind by Amir Jangoo when he failed to navigate a sharp, rising delivery at 140kph.
Simmonds struck a second time when he forced Arif Sheikh to slash another short ball into the waiting hands of Jason Holder on the third-man boundary.
Simmonds hastened the end of the innings when he had Sompal Kami trapped leg-before to a well disguised slower ball and then K.C. Karan misread the pace of another quick, lifting delivery and inside-edged the ball into his stumps.
In reply to the small target, the new-look opening pair of openers Jangoo and Ackeem Auguste easily reached the target of just over six runs per over.
They raced to 47 in the powerplay period as Jangoo brought up his maiden half-century off just 38 balls. He then unleashed a brutal assault, with five sixes in his last nine balls faced, to finish on 74 not out – the highest score of the series.
At the other end, Auguste provided the perfect foil with 41 not out, which came off 29 balls and included four boundaries and two sixes.
Speaking after the match West Indies captain Akeal Hosein said it was pleasing to get a win in what was overall a disappointing series.
“I think it was an excellent effort and it was quite clinical as well . . . we looked at the pitch today, totally different . . . and we were pleased to see the grass and went out today and executed. We had a new opening combination. Even though it was a small score, we had to set the platform and that’s exactly what
happened today.
“I must commend Nepal. I know the series means a lot to them, set a positive light in the right direction, they batted well, bowled well, fielded well. First two games, definitely their home conditions, [it was] the surface that they were accustomed to.”
