Published: Oct 24, 2016, 09:30 AM (IST)
Edited: Oct 24, 2016, 07:38 PM (IST)
Good Morning! Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of Day Four of the 2nd of the three-Test series between Pakistan and West Indies, at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. I Rohan Sawant from CricketCountry will bring all the live updates of this cracker of a contest. Pakistan are in complete control of the match here on Day Four courtesy of Yasir Shah first who got his 4-for which helped the hosts to bundle up West Indies at 224.Later it was their openers Azhar Ali and Sami Aslam who went on to put an opening stand of 93 runs before the aforementioned was dismissed just after his half-century. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD: Pakistan vs West Indies, 2nd Test at Abu Dhabi
West Indies have lacked the necessary attacking intent that was required from them. They have leaked runs, failed to get wickets at the crucial moments of the game. West Indies have failed to capitalise on the chances they have received wherein they missed out on catches. The Day three had completely Pakistan written over it. Since the word go, the bowling unit of the hosts was bang. They did take some time to remove them all but they made sure that they didn’t leak runs as the visitors could only manage to score just 118 runs in almost two sessions of the third day. Yasir Shah remained the pick of the bowler for Pakistan as he got is 4-for and finished with the figures of 28.4-6 -86-4. Rahat Ali was the second best bowler for Pakistan as he finished with 3 for 45.
Pakistan came in to bat in the last session with the duo of Azhar Ali and Sami Aslam who had failed to impress in the first innings. But these two batted responsibly as they already had the lead of 228 runs. They were being watchful of every ball and were letting good balls go into the keeper’s gloves without poking their bat at it. This two went on to put a 93 runs stand for the first wicket before Shannon Gabriel got rid of Sami Aslam who had just got to his half-century 2 balls ago. The ball swung from off to leg and settled into keeper Hopes’ gloves. Umpire Illingworth turned down the strong appeal from the bowler and the keeper who went in loud as they knew about the edge. Holder immediately went for the referral and the on-field decision was turned down as the reply showed that he had edged the ball. Sami’s departure meant Asad Shafiq’s entry who had scored 68 in the first innings.
Rahat immediately started getting the ball to reverse-swing and that started imposing problems on Johnson and Bravo, but Johnson in particular and soon the reverse swing from Rahat was rewarded as he trapped Leon Johnson for a simple leg-before. Samuels walked in and he along with Brathwaite put up a partnership of 41 runs. But the two quick wickets of Samuels and Brathwaite in the last stage of the game saw Pakistan coming out of the field as the dominant team.
Day Two started with Pakistan at the score of 304 for 4 with Misbah unbeaten on 90. Shannon Gabriel trapped Misbah in front of a full-length delivery which would have gone to hit the leg stump if not Misbah’s pads. It looked like West Indies would capitalise as they the hosts had two new batsmen i.e wicket keeper Sarfraz and all-rounder Nawaz at the crease.
Both went on to put a partnership of 70 runs from 103 balls for the 7th wicket which just took the game away from the visitors. Gabriel grabbed the wickets of opener Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Misbah, Sarfraz and Zulfiqar Babar to get to his maiden 5 wicket haul. Gabriel previously had the figures of 3 wickets for just 10 runs against Zimbabwe.
