Yasir Shah took four wickets, and Azhar Ali and Sami Aslam then scored half-centuries, as Pakistan assumed command of the second Test against West Indies in Abu Dhabi on Sunday (October 23).
At close on day three at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Pakistan held an overall lead of 342 after reaching 114 for 1, Misbah-ul-Haq earlier choosing not to enforce the follow on despite a 228-run advantage in the first innings.
West Indies began the third morning on 106 for 4 in response to Pakistan’s 452, and was bowled out for 224 as Yasir, the leg-spinner, picked up 4 for 86.
Opting to set a big target and take advantage of a wearing surface, Pakistan saw Azhar and Sami put on 93 for the first wicket to extend the lead. Shannon Gabriel had Sami caught behind for 50 with a little over six overs remaining, and Azhar (52) and Asad Shafiq (5) saw Pakistan through to the close without any further damage.
Through most of the second day, West Indies fought to keep Pakistan from assuming an impregnable position in the Abu Dhabi Test. Shannon Gabriel's maiden five-wicket haul helped bowl Pakistan out for 452, and West Indies seemed to be in a fairly manageable position heading to stumps, but two wickets in the last two overs of the day sent them spiralling back to square one. At stumps, West Indies were four down and trailing by 346 runs, with Yasir Shah beginning to cause all manner of problems, ripping the ball out of the rough from around the wicket.
Leon Johnson and Dwayne Bravo, opening because Kraigg Brathwaite had to make up for time spent off the field during Pakistan's innings, looked comfortable at the start of the West Indies innings, with the conditions offering little help for either the seamers or the spinners. Then, in the third over after tea, Rahat Ali produced reverse-swing with a 13-over-old ball to get Johnson lbw, beating his inside edge as he looked to work the ball into the leg side. Rahat then nearly had Brathwaite third ball, finding his outside edge as he poked uncertainly with no footwork at a length ball swinging away from him, but the ball fell just short of the wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed.
TODAY’s election of a new executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control (TTCB) has been stopped by the High Court following an agreement made between the incumbent regime and the opposing team led by former West Indies cricketers Dinanath Ramnarine and Daren Ganga.
High Court judge Carol Gobin ratified a Consent Order late yesterday that the TT CB would not hold today’s elections, as the Ramnarine-led slate filed a lawsuit for judicial review and an injunction, seeking to stop the elections.
Ramnarine wants to hold the TT CB accountable for a number of alleged breaches. Yesterday, Ramnarine, who is a former West Indies spin bowler; national cricketers Daren Ganga, Samuel Badree, Anil Kamal, Camal Basdeo and St Servius Clint Pamphile, went before Justice Gobin with Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, to stop today’s Annual General Meeting at the National Cricket Centre in Couva.
In the lawsuit which Maharaj intends to argue, Ramnarine and his five cricketing colleagues contended that certain articles of the TT CB’s constitution governing the election process, is unconstitutional.
They referred to the executive members of the TT CB who are elected by the board, with six votes to be cast by members who have been nominated by the present executive board and who are vying for re-election.
Younis Khan's 33rd Test hundred gave Pakistan the ideal first-day platform in the second Test against West Indies, lifting them from an uneasy 42 for 2 to a commanding 304 for 4 at stumps. Returning to the side after missing the day-night Test in Dubai to recover from a bout of dengue fever, Younis looked like he had never been away. He added 87 with Asad Shafiq for the third wicket, and 175 for the fourth with Misbah-ul-Haq, as Pakistan ground down a limited West Indies attack in typically benign first-day conditions in Abu Dhabi.
Younis made 127 before he fell in the 84th over of the day, slog-sweeping Kraigg Brathwaite's part-time offspin to deep midwicket. It turned out to be the last ball of the day, with the umpires ruling that the light had faded too much to continue just as the nightwatchman Yasir Shah walked in to the middle. Misbah, who already has five hundreds in Abu Dhabi and averaged 99.77 at the ground before this innings, went to stumps batting on 90.
West Indies' bowlers endured a long and largely thankless day on the field, made worse by two costly misses. In the last over before tea, Kraigg Brathwaite failed to hold on to a return catch off a firmly-hit flat-bat drive when Younis was on 83. Then, batting on 54 in the eleventh over after tea, Misbah nicked a ball from Shannon Gabriel that straightened in the corridor. Wicketkeeper Shai Hope, having initially moved in the wrong direction, dived low to his right behind the stumps, and the ball bounced out of his right glove.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Half-dozen of the 30 matches in the upcoming the West Indies Cricket Board’s Professional Cricket League Digicel SportsMax Regional 4-Day Tournament will be day/night contests played with pink cricket balls, it was announced on Thursday.
In keeping with the trend worldwide and to further pursue the experiment that it started six years ago, the WICB has scheduled the matches throughout the coming season which begins on November 11.
“We welcome the return of day/night matches with the pink ball in the Digical SportsMax R4Day,” said WICB Manager, Cricket Operations Roland Holder, as the regional governing body released fixtures for the first half of the season on Thursday. (EDS: See accompanying spreadsheet with match officials’ appointments).
“Each team has two matches – one home, one away – as gradually international boards begin to embrace this concept.
“The purpose of the re-introduction of day/night matches is two-fold. First, it allows our elite players to familiarise themselves with the pink ball, and secondly, it allows for greater spectator attendance, as patrons can have a relaxing evening watching their favourite team.”
Four of the day/night matches, which will begin at 3 pm daily, have been scheduled before the Christmas/New Year’s holiday break in the Tournament. They include an opening round fixture between Trinidad & Tobago Red Force and Windward Islands Volcanoes at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad.
Defending champions Guyana Jaguars will be part of the second day/night match, when they travel to St. Lucia to face the Volcanoes at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Ground in the third round from November 26 to 29.
The Jaguars return home to host long-standing rivals Barbados Pride in the following round from December 9 to 12 at the Guyana National Stadium in a day/night contest, another of which takes place between Leeward Islands Hurricanes and Jamaica Scorpions from December 15 to 18 at Warner Park in St. Kitts during the fifth round.
The last two day/night matches are currently scheduled to be contested in the New Year during the second half of the Tournament in April.
Recently, West Indies completed their first ever day/night Test, when Pakistan bounced them by 56 runs in a tense finish in Dubai. They are scheduled to play another day/night Test next year at Edgbaston on their tour of England.
