Pakistan 201/5 (20/20 ov)
Bangladesh 146/6 (20/20 ov)
Pakistan won by 55 runs
Pakistan's batting line-up, which had misfired frequently in recent matches, finally came together in their first match of the World T20 2016 to overpower Bangladesh by 55 runs. Fifties from Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez, and Shahid Afridi's 19-ball 49 propelled Pakistan to 201 for 5, a total which proved too steep for a side that had beaten them in their last two T20I encounters. This was only the second time Pakistan scored more than 200 in a T20 international, and the previous instance - in April 2008 - was also against Bangladesh.
Pakistan opted to bat first and, right from the start, kept their foot on the gas. They took 18 runs in three separate overs and failed to hit a four or a six in only two overs in their innings - the 9th and 14th - bowled by Shakib Al Hasan and Sabbir Rahman. Pakistan's opening pair of Shehzad and Sharjeel Khan was the fourth the side have tried out in T20Is this year, and Sharjeel set the tone, smashing two sixes and a four off Al-Amin Hossain in the second over.
Sharjeel fell in the next over to Arafat Sunny but Hafeez walked in and found his groove immediately, with a straight six down the ground off his second ball. Shehzad, who had struck a serene cover drive off Taskin Ahmed in the first over, then pushed the same bowler through midwicket, before pasting Sunny over extra-cover. His first three fours were pleasing shots, even as Hafeez blasted boundaries down the ground.
By the end of the Powerplay, Hafeez and Shehzad had similar scores before the latter pulled away and raced to his fifty off 35 balls. Shehzad fell in the 14th over, pulling Sabbir to the deep midwicket fielder for 52 off 39 balls with eight fours. His wicket ended a 95-run, second-wicket partnership that, through a combination of big hits and clever strike rotation, did not let the Bangladesh fielders relax.
Afridi promoted himself to No 4 to take advantage of the start. After Hafeez had reached his fifty in the 15th over, bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza, Afridi smacked two fours and a six off consecutive balls to produce an 18-run over. The pair took another 18 runs off Al-Amin's next over, with Hafeez striking two fours and Afridi a straight six.
Hafeez fell for 64 off 42 balls, immediately after striking his seventh four. He was caught brilliantly by Soumya Sarkar at the deep midwicket boundary. The fielder grabbed the ball close to the boundary rope; the momentum took him over the line so he lobbed the ball in the air, came back on to the field and completed the catch. The agile effort was the only solace for Bangladesh in the first innings.
Afridi unfurled the big shots in the overs that followed, including a four and a six off Shakib in the penultimate over. He went into the last over on 49 off 18 balls, on the brink of the record for the fastest fifty by a Pakistan batsman in T20Is, but he holed out to the deep square leg fielder and, in the process, also missed his first T20I half-century since June 2012.
Sarkar's joy from that smart catch was short-lived as Mohammad Amir uprooted his off stump on the third ball of their chase. Sabbir Rahman, who started off with a sweetly timed four past point, made sure, however, that Bangladesh didn't fall off quickly. He struck fours off Amir and Wahab Riaz through the off side, but fell in the final Powerplay over, bowled by an Afridi delivery that came on with the arm.
Tamim had sent the first ball of that Afridi over for a six into the stands beyond midwicket and in the next over, he lifted Malik over extra-cover for another six. His third attempt at clearing the boundary, however, ended up as a simple catch to Imad Wasim at midwicket. Tamim has been Bangladesh's best batsman in the tournament so far and his dismissal for a 20-ball 24 snuffed out most of Bangladesh's hopes of chasing 202.
Bangladesh have never made more than 87 runs in the last ten overs of a successful T20I chase, so getting 133 today was well beyond their reach. The pressure of an asking rate of over 13 got to Mahmudullah, who played a slog-sweep to Sharjeel at deep square leg in the 11th over, and Bangladesh slid further.
Shakib was still at the crease but from a position of 71 for 4, he had to tackle the Pakistan attack as well as Mushfiqur Rahim's frustrating batting at the other end. Between the 11th and 17th overs, Mushfiqur played and missed plenty of times. In two separate overs, Shakib struck a four off the first ball but Mushfiqur couldn't score off the remaining deliveries. Mushfiqur also did not turn as much of the strike over to Shakib and the required run rate soared out of their reach. Mushfiqur became Amir's second wicket in the 17th over.
Shakib had been dropped by Shehzad at midwicket on 33 and he went on to reach his sixth T20I fifty in the last over.
England 182/6 (20/20 ov)
West Indies 183/4 (18.1/20 ov)
West Indies win by 6 wickets
Chris Gayle, at 36, knows that he could be playing his last World Twenty20 and, judging by the manner in which he pulverised England at the Wankhede, he intends to go out in style. England's bowlers began the night fretting about the dew, and ended it drenched to the skin by the sight of Gayle raining sixes into the sky.
Nobody has hit as many sixes in a World T20 innings as the 11 that Gayle despatched in Mumbai, breaking his own record of 10 against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2007 - his only previous T20I hundred. Seven flew down the ground, the other four further along the leg-side arc and apart from a leap from Joe Root in a failed attempt to intercept the one that brought up his 50, all England's fielders could do was watch.
Gayle's sauntering savagery presented West Indies with a six-wicket win with 11 balls to spare. He started his celebration a few runs early, bringing out an air-punching routine on reaching his hundred to send the crowd into raptures. From 47 balls, it was the fastest ever at a World T20 and third-fastest overall.
Brendon McCullum, freshly retired, began the night as the leading six-hitter in T20Is. By the end of it, Gayle had passed him by a considerable distance. His involvement in Australia's Big Bash had been tarnished by criticism for his manner in on-field interviews: perhaps he had retribution in mind.
England, having set a par score of 182 for the Wankhede, will conclude it was just one of those nights, but their bowling line-up looked flaky in the final stages of a bilateral series in South Africa and they had little answer to Gayle. Moeen Ali was in the eye of the storm, conceding 33 from 14 balls, including three sixes in a row, all of them in his favourite area down the ground, two of them on the full.
India, the tournament favourites, had already been toppled on a dry pitch in Nagpur by an unsung trio of New Zealand spinners. No country has won the World T20 more than once, but it will be West Indies who will have the sharpest sense after this victory that they have the wherewithal to take the trophy a second time.
The night was wet enough for the authorities to decide that play should be held up midway through West Indies' innings to allow machinery to dry the outfield and ensure an even contest, an uncommon intervention. At 85 for 2, West Indies were well in control and, having won the toss, would have been happy with as much dew on the outfield as they could get, but Gayle made such a debate an irrelevance.
The first warning for England of trouble ahead came when Ben Stokes struggled to cope with the dew in his first over. England had more towels available than the average swimming pool, but Stokes conceded three fours and a free hit to Marlon Samuels in an over characterised by a full toss and a misfield. What dampness the dew wasn't causing, the nerves were.
Gayle watched all this contentedly from the non-striker's end, his eye already in after despatching two half-volleys for 10 in Reece Topley's opening over. He faced only six balls in the first 32, but as destructive batsmen go, he likes to take a long, lingering look, and from what he could tell things were going extremely well.
Samuels holed out against Adil Rashid at long-on, his 37 from 27 having given West Indies the edge. It was time for Gayle to stir in the form of two successive sixes off Rashid, the first of them an 89 metre blow down the ground and into the top tier.
Others were less successful. Denesh Ramdin scratched and scraped to no effect and, although Reece Topley's back-of-the-hand slower ball against Dwayne Bravo arrived as a thigh-high full toss, he planted it into the hands of deep midwicket. It was fortunate that full tosses were bringing wickets because England were bowling more of them than they would have liked.
Andre Russell stayed with Gayle as he claimed the contest in emphatic style. Rashid, regarded pre-tournament as a key England bowler, delivered only two overs - the dew doubtless a factor for Eoin Morgan, England's captain.
The Wankhede was expected to hearten the quicks and the pitch was green, but it proved deceptive as there was no seam movement of note, a fact illustrated by Bravo, one of many seasoned West Indies campaigners, who set the tone with an opening over comprising six slower balls.
The most important slower ball belonged to Russell, who caused Root to hack to mid-off, ending a verve-filled 48 from 36 balls. The most striking was Bravo's who left Stokes floundering blindly, lbw in the final over.
The last time Stokes played West Indies in T20, he famously punched a dressing room locker in frustration, broke his wrist and missed 2014 World T20 as a result and the dismissal must have been irksome enough for England's coaching staff to consider turning the changing room into a padded cell before his return.
England's side could show only 23 international appearances in India, with seven playing their first international in the country. The experience rested with West Indies, a team of old stagers, battle hardened in T20 leagues around the globe, and recognising this might be their last chance to follow up the World T20 prize they won in Sri Lanka four years ago.
England might have played carefree T20 cricket since their debacle at the 2015 World Cup forced a change of mentality, but the daring nature of their batting has not quite disguised the vulnerability of their pace attack. Nerveless cricket is tougher, too, at a high-profile tournament and only five runs came from the first two overs in which both Jason Roy and Alex Hales might have been run out.
England escaped. Hales took three successive boundaries off Samuel Badree, back in a West Indies side for the first time since 2014, an absence caused by injury, dengue fever and a lack of fixtures, the assault damaging the career figures that make him the most economical regular bowler in T20Is.
England had only lost Roy by midway, whipping Russell to midwicket. Hales was cleverly yorked by Sulieman Benn and two outstanding boundary saves by Russell suggested that this West Indies side might be older than they feel, even if the golden Mohican was in evidence to less impressive effect when Root drilled a full toss from Bravo down the ground and received a bonus boundary that he could not have envisaged.
England's best batting moments came from Root, seeking to add lusty blows to his deftness of touch, and a melancholy-eyed 30 from Jos Buttler, who will soon be seen at the Wankhede for Mumbai Indians in IPL. Three sixes will have whetted the appetite, but long before the end England had stood back to allow the giant of T20 cricket to soak up the cheers.
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