West Indies reaches semifinals with win vs Pakistan

West Indies reached into the World Twenty20 semi-finals after Dwayne Bravo’s power pack performance and Samuel Badree’s deadly spin bowling fashioned their complete 84-run win against 2009 winner Pakistan on Tuesday, April 1. Darren Sammy’s men defeat a wobbly begin to post a tough 166 for 6 wicket before revisiting to bowl out Pakistan for 82 runs in 17.5 overs and place up a semi-final fight with Sri Lanka on Thursday, April 3.
India, who won the first edition in 2007 will play against South Africa in the second semi-final on April 4. West Indies won the toss and selected to bat first in effective quarter-final contest. Bravo (46) and Sammy (42 not out) offered the late attack as West Indies made 59 runs in the final three overs at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Man-of-the-match Bravo said to the reporters that, “We had nothing to lose, we were under pressure”.
“I said to Sammy ‘Don’t worry about picking (Pakistani spinner Saeed) Ajmal or trying to rotate (strike) … Keep your eyes on the ball. We are powerful enough. If we get close to the ball, we’ll hit it over the ropes’.”
Hafeez said Pakistan could not improve once West Indies broke loose in the ending overs. Pakistan captain said, “We gave 70-71 runs in the last overs that took the game away from us.”
“In the last four overs, even our best bowlers Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul did not get their basics right and conceded too many runs in the end… When our chase started, we did not get any momentum, playing shots which were not there.”