MEL­BOURNE, Aus­tralia – West In­dies brushed aside min­nows Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates by 17 runs in their first of­fi­cial warm-up match on Mon­day but con­cerns re­mained ahead of the Caribbean side’s Twen­ty20 World Cup cam­paign.

Bran­don King’s 64 off 45 balls al­lowed West In­dies to post 152 for nine from their 20 overs af­ter they were sent in, cap­tain Nicholas Pooran lash­ing 46 off 31 de­liv­er­ies in sup­port.

West In­dies re­cov­ered from a dif­fi­cult po­si­tion of 22 for three in the fifth over to reach 117 with­out fur­ther loss be­fore 29-year-old seam­er Ju­naid Sid­dique snatched five for 13 from his four-over spell to scythe through the mid­dle and low­er or­der.

In re­ply, UAE were re­duced to 82 for six in the 16th over be­fore Muham­mad Waseem stroked an un­beat­en 69 off 52 de­liv­er­ies and Za­war Farid, a 14-ball un­beat­en to pro­vide a scare for the for­mer World cham­pi­ons.

Left-arm seam­er Ray­mon Reifer picked up three for 17 from his four overs to shine for West In­dies.

Com­ing off two suc­ces­sive de­feats to reign­ing world cham­pi­ons Aus­tralia, West In­dies found them­selves wob­bling ear­ly when open­ers Evin Lewis (2) and John­son Charles (1) fell in con­sec­u­tive overs and late call-up Shamarh Brooks fol­lowed in the fifth over for four.

King, ar­riv­ing at num­ber three, count­ed sev­en fours and two six­es while the left-hand­ed Pooran struck five six­es, the pair ral­ly­ing the in­nings in a 95-run, fourth-wick­et stand.

Once Pooran was bowled by pac­er Za­hoor Khan (2-24) in the 15th over, West In­dies lost six wick­ets for 28 runs in quick time.

UAE lost an ear­ly wick­et in their run chase but Waseem helped them re­cov­er by an­chor­ing a sec­ond wick­et stand of 31 with Vri­itya Ar­avind (9).

Reifer in­ter­vened, strik­ing twice in the ninth over to trig­ger a slide that saw five wick­ets tum­ble for 32 runs, be­fore Waseem, who lashed four fours and three six­es, part­nered with Za­war in a 53-run un­bro­ken sev­enth-wick­et part­ner­ship to pro­vide UAE with a strong fin­ish.

CMC

SCORES

WEST IN­DIES 152 for nine off 20 overs (Bran­don King 64, Nicholas Pooran 46; Ju­naid Sid­dique 5-13)

UAE 135 for six off 20 overs (Muham­mad Waseem 69 not out, Za­war Farid 29 not out; Ray­mon Reifer 3-17)

Re­sult: West In­dies won by 17 runs.

Toss: UAE.

Um­pires: Aleem Dar, Marais Eras­mus.