West Indies register historic Test win in Pakistan, level series with comprehensive 120-run triumph
Resuming at 76-4 Monday, Pakistan lost both overnight batters without adding to the total, as Kevin Sinclair (3-61) had Saud Shakeel caught in the slips off the third ball of the morning and Warrican clean bowled nightwatchman Kashif Ali in the next over
Multan: West Indies spun out Pakistan for 133 on a rank-turning pitch to record a series-leveling 120-run win inside three days of the second and final test on Monday.
Pakistan, which needed a further 178 runs for an improbable win on its own engineered spinning wicket, fell quickly to Jomel Warrican’s left-arm spin on Day 3 as the West Indies gained its first test win in Pakistan in over 34 years.
“We haven’t won here in a while so to come here and do it as a young group is incredible,” West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite said, referring to the tourists’ last win in Pakistan by seven wickets at Faisalabad in Nov. 1990.
“On this pitch, there’s a ball with your name on it around the corner… it was a good experience. When you get on better pitches, you can have a similar mindset and it will help you in the long run.” Warrican claimed 5-27 to finish the series with a series-leading 19 wickets and also pushed Pakistan to the bottom of the World Test Championship table as both teams ended their two-year campaigns.
Resuming at 76-4 Monday, Pakistan lost both overnight batters without adding to the total, as Kevin Sinclair (3-61) had Saud Shakeel caught in the slips off the third ball of the morning and Warrican clean bowled nightwatchman Kashif Ali in the next over.
Mohammad Rizwan (25) and Salman Ali Agha (15) added 39 runs while trying to use their feet against the spinners before both fell to the left-arm spin of Warrican. Salman had already survived a close stumping chance off Warrican but was finally deceived by a looping delivery and was out lbw, while Rizwan couldn’t read Warrican’s brilliant delivery that spun back into him and knocked back the stumps.
The spinner then wrapped up West Indies’ famous win with more than an hour to go until lunch on Day 3 by clean bowling Sajid Khan. It was a remarkable turnaround for West Indies which lost the first test by 127 runs at the same venue and were 7-38 on Day 1 of the second test before its tailenders lifted them to 163 all out for a slender first-innings lead of nine runs.
Captain Kraigg Brathwaite’s half-century in the second innings then led West Indies to post 244 for an overall lead of 253 runs before Pakistan’s batters fell into their own trap of a turning pitch against the tourists spinners. Pakistan captain Shan Masood believed his bowlers allowed the opposition’s tailenders too many runs in the first innings and that pushed his team behind in the game.
“Yes, they batted well, but we have to learn too,” Masood said. “It’s been a habit, it happened in South Africa as well.” West Indies finished eighth on the WTC table and Pakistan was at No. 9 with Australia and South Africa already qualifying for the final at Lord’s in June.
Masood defended Pakistan’s ploy of making spin pitches which saw them using industrial-sized fans and patio heaters against both England and West Indies which earned them three successive home wins before Monday’s defeat.
“We’ve won three out of four tests, but even in the game we’ve lost, on the first day we were in the position we wanted,” he said. “One bad performance can’t have a domino effect. We still have to be brave and replicate conditions.
“Even when we fail, there are a lot of learnings. Now we realize as a team that one extra wicket, one extra partnership, can have a huge effect on the game.”
Brief Scores: West Indies 163 & 244 bt Pakistan 154 & 133 in 44 overs (Babar Azam 31; Jomel Warrican 5/27, Kevin Sinclair 3/61).
