West Indies beat Pakistan by seven wickets in third T20I

Evin Lewis' scored a brilliant 91 as West Indies defeated Pakistan by seven wickets in the third Twenty20 International (T20I) at Queen's Park Oval here.

With the West Indies chasing 138, Lewis slammed nine sixes and five boundaries to take the hosts past the target in barely 14.5 overs on Saturday, according to an International Cricket Council (ICC) release.

Lewis's assault on the bowling was in stark contrast to the struggles of most of the Pakistani batsmen, with the exception of Kamran Akmal and Babar Azam, as Pakistan collapsed from a solid 92 for 2 in 12 overs to a meagre 137 -- adding only 45 runs in the last eight overs and losing six more wickets.

In the West Indies' outing, Lewis lost his opening partner Chadwick Walton early on in the chase to an excellent diving catch by Fakhar Zaman running in from the square-leg boundary off left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir.

But Tanvir was later mauled by Lewis when in the 14th over he was sent for 24 runs, an assault that ended the match as a contest.

Marlon Samuels helped Lewis add 56 runs for the second wicket and debutant Jason Mohammed looked good in scoring an unbeaten 17 and figuring in a 76-run third-wicket stand with Lewis.

But everything paled in comparison to Lewis's relentless assault, which ended with victory in sight as Wahab Riaz held the catch at long-off to give leggie Shadab Khan a wicket.

Man of the Match in the first two games Shadab struggled to recapture the same control under the pressure imposed by Lewis, and to a lesser extent the other top-order batsmen.

Earlier, Akmal (48) and Azam (43) had Pakistan well poised for a total in excess of 160 after they chose to bat first. The duo put on 88 runs for the third wicket after Samuel Badree (2 for 22) removed opener Ahmed Shehzad and incoming Imad Wasim in the very first over of the match.

However, the introduction of Samuels for his first bowling stint in international cricket after an 18-month suspension earned the home side a vital breakthrough and turned the tide.

Samuels's first delivery was a waist-high full toss, which Akmal swung to Lendl Simmons on the mid-wicket boundary.

Shoaib Malik, Pakistan's top scorer in the three-run win on Thursday at the same venue, didn't last long as he flicked a full-length delivery from pacer Carlos Brathwaite to Lewis at long-leg.

Pakistan struggled for runs the rest of the way with West Indies restricting the total to manageable limits.

--IANS

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