Half-centuries from Brandon King, 64 off 70 balls, and Johnson Charles, 63 off 47 balls, a spirited 37 off 24 balls by Odean Smith, Kacey Carty’s 32 off 39 balls, and then a ruthless bowling display helped West Indies beat the United Arab Emirates and seal a series win against the United Arab Emirates in Sharjah yesterday.
The United Arab Emirates bowlers did well to rein things in after a 129-run opening stand between King and Charles, even as Smith’s 24-ball 37 helped take West Indies past 300.
However, another poor performance with the bat by United Arab Emirates enabled the West Indies to canter to a 78-run victory.
After the West Indies opted to bat, King, on the back of a fine century in the 1st ODI, played anchor as Charles took on the role of aggressor against the United Arab Emirates’ opening bowlers Sanchit Sharma and Ali Naseer.
Charles, playing his second One Day International since 2016, hit Sanchit for two boundaries in his first over before smashing 18 of the 20 runs that came off the seventh over, bowled by Naseer. King, meanwhile, hit some exquisite drives through the off side, as he picked up from where he left off in the first match.
The final scores: The West Indies 306 off 49.5 overs (Brandon King 64, Johnson Charles 63, Zahoor Khan 3-44), United Arab Emirates 228-7 off 50 overs (Ali Naseer 57, Basif Hameed 49, Kareem Hodge 2-46, Roston Chase 2-49).
The West Indies also won the first match by 7 wickets and now have an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the 3-match series with the third and final match scheduled for tomorrow.
