Fourteen runs can feel like a canyon in a tight T20 finish. In Lauderhill, Pakistan opened their 2025 series with a street‑smart performance, riding Saim Ayub’s clean 57 and Mohammad Nawaz’s crafty left‑arm spin to hold off West Indies by 14 runs. The game swung hard after a flying West Indies start, and once the brakes went on, Pakistan never let go.
This was international cricket in the United States, where Central Broward Park tends to flatter hitters early and then grip just enough to bring spinners into the contest. That script fit the night. Pakistan stacked a competitive 178 for 6, West Indies raced to a 72-run opening stand, and then Nawaz walked in with the ball and flipped the tone of the chase in a single over.
How Pakistan set up 178/6
Pakistan didn’t need fireworks from every batter; they needed a base and a burst. Ayub supplied both. His half-century came with crisp drives through the arc and fearless swings over midwicket, the kind of innings that puts fielding captains on the clock. He picked lengths early and used the short side of the ground smartly, stringing together a run-a-ball start before accelerating into the high gears.
What stood out was the control. Ayub didn’t chase wide tempters or slog across the line. He kept his shape, cashed in on anything too full, and punished pace-on when West Indies missed their yorkers. Pakistan stitched small but vital partnerships around him, managing the risk in the middle overs and keeping wickets in hand for a final push.
West Indies tried to choke the run rate with changes of pace and back-of-the-hand cutters. At times it worked, especially when the ball gripped. But Pakistan targeted the seam-up overs to stay ahead of par, and late-innings nudges turned into twos as the outfield quickened. The total—178—wasn’t a smash-and-grab; it was a number built on discipline and shot selection.
It helped that Pakistan spread responsibility. The middle order didn’t explode, but it didn’t stall either. Strike rotation kept the bowlers from dictating, and a couple of clean hits at the death nudged the target close to 180, a number that always forces a chasing side into a choice: go hard early or risk a climb later. West Indies chose the former.
Spin flips a strong West Indies start
West Indies’ reply began with swagger. Johnson Charles, all fast hands and flat bats, put early pressure on the seamers with 35 off 36. At the other end, T20I debutant Joel Andrew looked composed, finding the middle with clean swings and tidy mechanics. The pair stacked a 72-run opening stand that silenced Pakistan’s huddle and tilted the chase toward the hosts’ comfort zone.
Then came the squeeze. Pakistan turned to spin, and the surface joined in. The ball held just enough to force batters into reaching, and mis-hits began to carry to the in-field. The momentum swing was abrupt: from cruise control to caution within a handful of overs. Wickets in clusters do more than dent a score—they scramble a plan.
Nawaz owned that phase. His 3 for 23 in four overs was a masterclass in angles and length. He dragged the ball into the pitch when batters expected a fuller trajectory and slid arm-balls past the outside edge when they waited on the back foot. The defining passage came in the 12th over, where he cracked the chase open with a triple strike, turning a comfortable pursuit into a recovery mission.
The over changed the room. Roston Chase and Rovman Powell, tasked with stabilizing and then launching, couldn’t rebuild tempo. Sherfane Rutherford and Romario Shepherd faced a pitch that felt stickier by the minute, and Pakistan’s in-fielders closed the gaps. Shai Hope, usually the metronome, couldn’t settle and fell cheaply. Gudakesh Motie swung hard first ball and walked back without scoring.
Even so, West Indies didn’t fold. Jason Holder used his reach to pick off length balls and drop them into pockets, finding a few clean connections that kept the equation alive. Shamar Joseph added a late six that jolted the crowd. But Pakistan had banked enough dot balls to cushion those hits. When the last over arrived, the ask felt heavy; the chase ended at 164.
Pakistan’s support cast did their jobs. Shaheen Shah Afridi’s 1 for 27 kept a lid on the powerplay damage and forced batters into errors with the new ball tailing in. Sufiyan Muqeem chipped in with a wicket at a key moment, breaking rhythm just as West Indies tried to reset. Ayub, already the batting star, grabbed two wickets in two overs for 20, a bonus Pakistan were happy to cash.
What separated the sides wasn’t just wickets—it was timing. Pakistan struck in overs that matter most in T20: right after the powerplay, at the start of the middle overs, and again just before the slog. Every strike forced West Indies to recalibrate. Each recalibration cost balls.
The venue played its part. Central Broward’s white-ball wickets can look friendly under lights but turn two-paced as the night goes on. Pakistan read it early, kept one spinner on through the middle, and backed their lengths. West Indies, after the early burst, found that flat-batted hits no longer flew. Mistimed pulls and off-pace cutters began to die inside the circle.
There was also game management. Pakistan used long boundaries smartly, funneled hitters to the big side, and protected the straight fence with pace off. The bowling plans were simple: deny pace, deny width, and challenge the stumps. West Indies’ hitters like Powell and Shepherd prefer pace on; Pakistan rarely gave it to them in a row.
Key moments that moved the needle:
- A 72-run opening stand gave West Indies the chase they wanted—and lulled them into a false sense of security.
- Nawaz’s triple strike in the 12th over ripped out the middle and forced a rebuild with the rate climbing.
- Ayub’s two tidy overs as a part-time option bought Pakistan flexibility to hold back a seamer for the death.
- Disciplined death bowling—more cutters than full pace—kept Holder’s late hits from turning into a jailbreak.
For Pakistan, this win matters beyond the points tally. Their T20 form has been uneven in recent months, and closing out a game after losing control early is the kind of habit teams try to build before bigger tournaments. Ayub’s poise at the top and Nawaz’s control in the toughest overs are boxes they badly wanted to tick.
For West Indies, there was promise in the opening stand and in Andrew’s composure on debut. The middle-overs blueprint, though, needs work. When the ball grips, they will need a lower-risk option—sweeps, dinks, drop-and-run—to bridge the gap to the finishers. On this night, the gap yawned just long enough for Pakistan to step through it.
The series has a pulse now. The crowd in Florida got their contest, the bowlers got their turn after the hitters’ party, and the teams got a clear view of what works on this surface. The next game will test whether West Indies can adjust to spin earlier and whether Pakistan can repeat the same discipline with bat and ball in another pressure night of Pakistan vs West Indies cricket.