T20 World Cup warm-up games: Pakistan beat West Indies, South Africa make winning start against Afghanistan

Pakistan made a winning start to the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 campaign as they beat the defending champions West Indies in their first warm-up game at the ICC Academy in Dubai while South Africa came up with trumps against Afghanistan quite convincingly in their warm-up game on Monday.

West Indies' heavy-duty batting line-up struggled against Pakistan spinners as they couldn't rotate strike regularly and boundaries had dried up. Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Roston Chase all failed to get going and the Windies had just 60 runs on the board in 13 overs.

Some late runs by Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard helped the men in maroon get to 130 runs but it was always going to be a below-par score and they had to bowl really well to restrict Pakistan.

Ravi Rampaul dismissed Mohammad Rizwan but that was the only early wicket they got as Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman stitched a 58-run partnership for the second wicket and it was a formality after that as they got over the line with 27 balls to spare.

Proteas getting off to a winning start

In the other game, Afghanistan kept South Africa openers in check and also dismissed Quinton de Kock. Skipper Temba Bavuma didn't get going and eventually fell for a run-a-ball 30 but Aiden Markram (48 off 35), Rassie van der Dussen (21 off 17) and David Miller (20* off 10) with quick runs at the end helped Proteas get to 145 runs.

The South African bowlers were all over the Afghan batting line-up from the start. They had half their team back in the pavilion with just 42 onboard and despite skipper Mohammad Nabi's efforts they fell short by 41 runs.