Dubai: Pakistan withstood Sunil Narine's late charge to beat the West Indies by 16 runs in the second Twenty20 international and win their three-match series on Saturday with a match to spare.
Captain Sarfraz Ahmed hit an unbeaten 46 in leading Pakistan to 160-4. Khalid Latif (40) and Shoaib Malik (37) also made useful contributions to set up a strong target for the World Twenty20 champion in humid conditions.
But West Indies' top order stumbled for the second successive day, and the target looked out of reach until No. 9 batsman Narine made a rapid 30 off 17 balls. But with 30 needed off the last over, West Indies fell short at 144-9 and Narine was out on the last ball.
"There were some problems toward the end because of the dew factor, but we finished it well," Ahmed said.
"Credit goes to Malik for finishing the innings, and the youngsters are coming good which is a great sign for Pakistan cricket."
Left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir rattled West Indies' top order to finish with 3-13, while Narine top-scored and distorted the figures of another seamer, Hasan Ali, who ended up with 3-49.
"In hindsight, 150 could have been manageable," West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite said. "In the first six-seven overs, we just didn't turn up with the bat, and it is frustrating."
West Indies met a similar top-order collapse in the first match on Friday, when they lost by nine wickets.
Tanvir dismissed Evin Lewis and Marlon Samuels cheaply to reduce the visitors to 19-3, and Dwayne Bravo (18) was clean bowled by left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz to leave his team lurching at 45-4 in 10 overs.
West Indies lost another three wickets in the space of seven runs to be reeling at 89-7 in the 16th over. Ali removed Andre Fletcher and Kieron Pollard in one over while Nicholas Pooran, playing his second T20, holed out in the deep off Tanvir.
Earlier, West Indies fielders struggled in testing conditions as Ahmed and Malik featured in a fourth-wicket stand of 69 runs off 44 balls, featuring some brisk running between the wickets.
Samuel Badree dropped Malik at point before the batsman scored, and Jerome Taylor missed a run out chance off his own bowling just before Malik eventually was caught in the deep in the last over.
Opening batsman Latif batted solidly until he was run out in the 12th over, after fellow opener Sharjeel Khan, on 2, was bowled by Badree for the second successive time.
The last T20 will be at Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, followed by a three-match ODI series and equal number of test matches.
