Pakistan fans make the team proud at the Karachi Stadium

Asian cricket fans are the most passionate bunch and never leave an opportunity to back their team with their presence on the ground. Pakistan fans were denied this opportunity for a while as there was no international cricket hosted in the country. Though baby steps but the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is making progress and is trying to invite teams to play international matches on their soil. At present they are hosting Windies in a three-match T20I series.

They’ve played a few matches against Zimbabwe, World XI and the one against Sri Lanka but all of them were hosted at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. This time around having played the final of Pakistan Super League (PSL) season three in Karachi, PCB moved the ongoing series to the national capital. Najam Sethi now wants to ensure more venues in the country are considered safe for play.

Windies sent a second-string squad to play the series that got underway last night. The fans flocked the stands and it was a full house. The two teams walked out for the national anthems and as they were playing the “Pāk Sarzamīn” the sound system in the stadium failed midway.

But the 25,000 odd present there didn’t let it cause any embarrassment and sung the national anthem louder very much in sync and it was a smooth effort that would’ve rather made everyone present the people as well as the players proud.

“The power supply of sound system stopped working suddenly and it happened during the anthem so no one was in a position to immediately repair it,” Geo.tv quoted source privy to the scene in the stadium. “However, the spectators turned it into a memorable event,” the source added.

The players were also thrilled by this effort from the crowd and after the anthems were completed, the team waved at them to laud the gesture.

Pakistan take lead in the series 

Batting first the hosts put up their highest T20I total on the board. It was a collective effort from the batting team and they ended up with 203/5 in 20 overs. The fact that this is a weak Windies team was acknowledged well before the start of the series but they folded up for a meek 60 runs and lasted only 13.4 overs. Pakistan, as a result, won the match by 143 runs.

For all the latest cricket news and other details follow CricTracker.