West Indies beat minnows Afghanistan to seal T20 series

West Indies sealed the T20 series with a game in hand, brushing aside minnows Afghanistan for the second night in a row. The Caribbean team thus won the 3-match series, kudos to their brutal pace barrage. An abject display of batting by Afghanistan paved the way for the West Indies to win the rain-affected second fixture by the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern System (DLS) held at Warner Park in St Kitts on Saturday.

The target was revised after rain took away nearly two hours from the fixture. Evin Lewis and Marlon Samuels got good starts after wicketkeeper-batsman Chadwick Walton powered West Indies during powerplay overs. Rashid Khan, Karim Janat and Gulbadin Naib, though, reversed the advantage for the minnows with strong performances with the ball.  After play resumed, a late flourish from Lendl Simmons meant West Indies got to 112 in 15 overs, a total that was further calibrated as per the DLS rules requiring Afghanistan to score 123.

The chase began with a typically tight over from Badree, which went for only one. Taylor shared the new ball and chose to begin from around the wicket. Despite the trivial target, Afghanistan batters turned in another dire performance which saw themselves slip to 55 for 8 by the 11th over. Afghanistan, after losing their marquee batsman Nabi could barely manage a recovery.

With the combination of Samuel Badree’s discipline and the pace of Jerome Taylor and Kesrick Williams, the hosts struck thrice inside four overs in Afghanistan’s chase of 123, setting the tone for a comfortable victory. Karim Janat added a face-saving 20 off 15 only till late, and by then, the chase had already been dead and buried.

Afghanistan’s chase depicted a scattered display of anxiety against pace. The minnows kept losing wickets at regular intervals and the recovery never came. Captain Carlos Brathwaite, who had chipped away at the lower-middle order, took the final catch to notch up the series win.

Following the defeat, Asghar Stanikzai was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz, “Yeah, it is disappointing. The target wasn’t very big. This is a good experience playing against West Indies as they are a champion team. We’ll try to play well in the next game. Unfortunately, we lost the game.”

Afghanistan earlier threatened to rewrite their lowest total in Twenty20 International history scoring a trivial 72 against Bangladesh in 2014. However, they avoided the ignominy thanks only to some lower-order resistance. In the ongoing series, Afghanistan scored 110 in the first match could muster only 93 in a chase of 123 from 15 overs in the second encounter, thereby conceding the three-match series.