West Indies in Familiar Hopeless Situation

It has become laughably predictable. Except, there is nothing funny about the familiar position of hopelessness facing Carl Hooper's West Indies team.

A brave, unbeaten 84 from Hooper himself could not stem the tide and, at stumps on the third day, the West Indies found themselves 338 runs behind, staring at another huge defeat. Scores in the match: Pakistan 472 and 130/1; West Indies 264.

AUDIO REPORT: BBC's Chris Florence (RealPlayer).

Even on a day when Hooper scored his 5,000th Test run, the ninth West Indian to reach the milestone, it was clear the talent gap between the two team meant the Caribbean side would lose their 23rd Test in 27 overseas outings.

Hooper's unbeaten 84 from 182 balls (9x4, 1x6) simply not enough. He got little to no support from the rest of the middle order with vice captain Ridley Jacobs chipping in with 31. Only Ryan Hinds, playing in only his second Test, managed to get into double figures on day three.

In the end, the West Indies fell nine runs short of the follow-on target but Pakistan skipper opted not to enforce it, effectively putting the match out of the reach of the hapless West Indies.

For Pakistan, Shoaib Akhtar 4/63 and Saqlain Mushtaq 3/75 did the damage.