Series of soft dismissals make it West Indies’ day

Tourists restrict Pakistan to 255-8 as batsmen capitulate on benign Sharjah pitch

KARACHI: After a series of disappointing results in all three formats on their tour of UAE, the West Indians finally had a day to remember as their bowlers troubled the Pakistani batsmen on the opening day of the third and final Test of the series being played at the Sharjah Stadium yesterday.

Misbahul Haq, captaining Pakistan for a record 49th game, won the toss for the third consecutive time in the series and decided to bat first on what looked like a typical Sharjah track full of runs.

But the hosts were in for a rude awakening as some early morning moisture made the ball jag around in the opening exchanges, and West Indian quick Shannon Gabriel set the cat among the pigeons by removing Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq inside the first four balls of the match.



Sami Aslam and Younus Khan stopped the rut with a defiant 106-run partnership; Younus perished for 51, attempting an ugly across the line shot against spinner Roston Chase.

The stalwart’s dismissal to a poor shot set the tone for the rest of the day. Sami who posted the fifth half-century of his budding career fell attempting a callous reverse sweep after an assured 74.



Misbah also threw away his wicket attempting another reverse sweep to fall for 53 in the final session of the day.

Sarfraz Ahmed scored a typical pugnacious 51 before falling close to the end of the play soon after Mohammad Nawaz had perished for six; Pakistan also lost the wicket of Wahab Riaz to end the day on an underwhelming score of 255-8.



Seniors should have scored big: Shoaib

Former Test opener and selector Shoaib Mohammad feels that the match is evenly poised, but was not happy with the way the batsmen performed on the opening day.

“In Tests you need your batsmen to make the most of their starts and convert them into big scores. Unfortunately none of our batsmen did that [yesterday],” he said.

Shoaib, though, still believes that Pakistan are favourites to win the game considering the firepower in their bowling attack, especially after the return of the left-arm pace duo of Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir.



“Our pace attack has certainly been bolstered by the return of Amir and Wahab; these two are our best fast-bowlers and I feel that they will be a handful even on this typical Sharjah pitch, which offers little to the pacers,” he added.

Shoaib, meanwhile, picked in-form leg-spinner Yasir Shah as the trump card for the team considering his impressive form in the series — having taken 17 wickets in the first two Tests.

“While the pacers will play an important role when the West Indians come out to bat tomorrow, I feel that Yasir is the one bowler who can run through the tourists on this pitch,” he said. “His confidence is high and if he bowls the way he did in the first two Tests, Pakistan will be the favourites despite their below-par first innings effort.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2016.

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