PROVIDENCE: Pakistan won a seven-run victory over the West Indies in the second Twenty20 International of the four-match series at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Saturday.

Following a rain-ruined opening encounter in Barbados three days earlier, Babar Azam’s team will go into the third match of the series on Sunday, also at Providence, with 1-0 lead.

Pooran’s explosive unbeaten 62 off 33 balls with six sixes and four fours kept the West Indies’ hopes alive even in the final over when 20 runs were required to overhaul Pakistan’s total of 157-8.

However, Shaheen Shah Afridi claimed the wicket of captain Kieron Pollard and then denied Pooran the opportunity to swing freely and lustily at the next three deliveries to ensure the visitors came away with the win with the hosts kept to 150-4.

West Indies were again undone in their run chase by the number of scoreless deliveries, 47, in their innings, although nothing could take away from the outstanding bowling effort of Mohammad Hafeez.

Bowling the first over of the innings, the veteran off-spinning all-rounder bowled Andre Fletcher with his second ball and conceded just six runs across his four overs.

“Knowing these conditions and having played cricket here before in the Caribbean Premier League certainly helped as I knew it would be difficult for the batsmen,” said player-of-the-match Hafeez.

West Indies suffered a setback when opener Evin Lewis retired hurt on 35 midway through the innings.

Earlier on, Jason Holder and Dwayne Bravo put the brakes on the Pakistan scoring rate.

Holder returned the excellent figures of 4-26 while Bravo claimed 2-24 as the tourists squandered a solid platform provided by Babar (51 off 58 balls) and Mohammad Rizwan (46), who added 67 for the third wicket.