West Indies will have an uphill battle on Friday to save the third and final test against Pakistan and prevent the visitors winning the series 2-1.
They closed the day on 7 for 1 after losing opener Powell. The home side have only themselves to blame after reducing the visitors to 7 for 90. However poor bowling assisted by some drop catches helped Pakistan to rebuild a crucial eight wicket stand of 61. Pakistan then declared on 174 for 8 giving the home side the difficult task of trying to win or save the series.
After three days of attritional cricket in a tense Test match, this game finally showed its hand. Pakistan’s fast bowlers were rewarded for the work they put in, with Mohammad Abbas taking four wickets in four overs to give the team a seemingly impregnable lead of 129.
It began when Shane Dowrich chopped the fourth ball of the day on to his stumps. That meant Roston Chase, who had been forced to retire hurt on 60 after a bouncer struck his elbow, came back to the crease. He and Jason Holder – the same pair that had orchestrated a 132-run seventh wicket stand in Bridgetown, held the innings together for a while, but Pakistan continued to be tight and eventually reaped great dividends. Abbas caught fire all of a sudden, with a spell of 4-1-3-4, and in the process he revealed a side many didn’t know he had. He bowled Chase with a fast, in swinging yorker to start off.
Devendra Bishoo followed the very next ball, Younis Khan taking a superb low catch in the slips. Another searing yorker, in the mould of Waqar Younis, cleaned up poor Alzarri Joseph. Holder could only watch from the other end as last man Shannon Gabriel too, fell to Abbas, giving him a maiden five-wicket haul.
There was still time for Pakistan to bat seven overs before lunch, so swiftly had they bowled the West Indies out. But they batted rather tentatively during that period, scoring just eight runs, and lost the wicket of Azhar Ali, who slashed a short, wide delivery to point. Babar Azam followed suit on the last ball of the session, edging to short leg, with the third umpire judging him out, after lengthy deliberations.
For assistant coach Toby Radford, “it’s frustrating.” He said it was “disappointing to lose Powell” however, the team will need to regroup and assess the game session by session.
“It’s all about coming in the morning and trying to play hour by hour and see where you are as the game develops. If you get a really good partnership, then you can attack,” he said. He labeled the pitch “very slow” and explained that when you are batting you have to “be very careful” as to how you score. “A lot of the scoring has been done on the back foot…Yasir will be the key we will have to wait on him for his bad balls,” he said.
A WONDERFUL game of cricket very entertaining, there has to be a winner and a loser and these languages are not call for. To win games you have to take chances when they come. Missing catches a big failure. My thanks to the people who came out in support.
All you loss! Well dacour nuh! What else is new in DA?
The West Indies cricket team is a damn disgrace. I’m not surprised they lost because they chose to bat last and their batsmen are indisciplined.Usually the pitch deteriorates on the last days of a test match and since the West Indies batsmen are not patient and strategic ,I expected them to lose.This garbage team is put together at the behest of a garbage board, so what do you expect
Well done Pakistan . We have no national pride. All other islands insist that their national play at home.Personally Dominicans should have boycotted the game untill Shane Shillingford and Tyrone Theophile are selected at least to play at home. Where is Mr Nanton to advocate for the Dominican cricketers.Please let us show some national pride in our people.You called Shane Shillingford out and sent him for correction he did I am sure if he were there the outcome would be different.It is time we take a leaf from the Bajans Antiguans Jamaicans Trinidadians. All have national pride and that could never happened to their nationals.