The West Indies yesterday 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.
Pakistan, who needed a further 178 runs for an improbable win on their own engineered spinning wicket, fell quickly to Jomel Warrican’s left-arm spin as the the West Indies gained their first Test win in Pakistan in more than 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 in Faisalabad in November 1990.
Photo: AFP
“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,” he said.
Warrican claimed 5-27 to finish the series with 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, 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 trapped leg before wicket, while Rizwan could not read Warrican’s brilliant delivery that spun back into him and knocked back the stumps.
The spinner then wrapped up the famous win with more than an hour to go until lunch by clean bowling Sajid Khan.
It was a remarkable turnaround for the West Indies, who lost the first Test by 127 runs at the same venue and were 7-38 on the first day of the second Test before their 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 the West Indies to post 244 for an overall lead of 253, before Pakistan’s batters fell into their own trap of a turning pitch against the 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.”
The West Indies finished eighth on the World Test Championship table and Pakistan were at No. 9 with Australia and South Africa already qualifying for the final at Lord’s in London in June.
Masood defended Pakistan’s ploy of making spinning pitches which saw them using industrial-sized fans and patio heaters against both England and the West Indies which earned them three successive home wins before yesterday’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.”
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