Published: Oct 22, 2016, 07:17 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 22, 2016, 07:20 PM (IST)
West Indies have ended Day Two of the second Test at the score of 106 for the loss of 4 wickets. They have Devendra Bishoo along Jermaine Blackwood at the crease. West Indies are still trailing Pakistan by 346 runs as they are following the total of 452 set by Pakistan due to Younis Khan‘s 33rd Test century and their captain Misbah-ul-Haq’s 96. With the three days of the match still left, this Test match seems to be well in balance as both teams have played good cricket in the first two days of the match. The two quick wickets of Marlon Samuels and Kraigg Brathwaite have put Pakstan in the dominating position at Day Two stumps. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Pakistan vs West Indies, 2nd Test at Abu Dhabi
West Indies when came out to bat started off well and that is what was needed from them as they had a big total to overtake. They also changed their opening pair as Darren Bravo who had hit a century in the previous Test was asked to open the innings along with their usual opener Leon Johnson. This move of changing the opening pair was working fine for the visitors as both had taken a cautious approach early on in their innings. Both made sure that West Indies went into Tea without losing any wicket as they had 27 runs on the board. In the last session the day, Pakistan took the new ball and the skipper handed the ball to Rahat Ali who has come into the squad instead of Mohammad Aamer. 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 Plumb. LIVE CRICKET UPDATES: Pakistan vs West Indies, 2nd Test at Abu Dhabi
West Indies lost their first wicket without scoring a single run the last session. But even though they had lost their one opener, but the presence of Bravo still was giving the visitors a hope that they would still do better. Brathwaite came in at No. 3 for the visitors and he played a sensible innings along with well-settled Bravo. He made sure that the scoreboard kept ticking and that his partner at the other end was given ample of strike which would let him play freely. But soon the reverse swing for Rahat ended causing the batsmen to score runs freely. But Yasir Shah was introduced by Misbah and he got the wicket of Bravo at the very crucial. Marlon 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.
The second day started with Pakistan at the score of 304 for the loss of four wickets as they had skipper Misbah who was on unbeaten 90 along with night watchman Yasir Shah who had not faced a single delivery. Yasir had come to bat as Younis Khan was dismissed on Kraigg Brathwaite’s bowling. After Younis’ wicket, the play was called off due to bad light. It was very much expected that Misbah would get to his 11th Test century as he had looked very stern and in perfect composure to hit his century while he was batting with Younis. Both Younis and Misbah had added 175 runs 44 overs for the 4th wicket to take the game away from West Indies who had initially got wickets in quick intervals. At the start of the Day Two, the night watchman Yasir played a brilliant cameo as he was seen playing both defensive and attacking shots with perfection.
Misbah on the other end was taking his time to get to his milestone and didn’t look like having apprehensions of giving Yasir the strike against the fast bowling attack from the visitors with the new ball. It was completely against the run of play that Misbah had to depart. Shannon Gabriel who took his maiden 5-for in the innings was the bowler to dismiss the Pakistani captain. He trapped Misbah in front of his pads on a full-length delivery which would have gone to hit the leg stump if not Misbah’s pads.
The skipper had decided to walk back after getting dismissed in the nervous 90s for the third time, but some talks with Yasir made him take the review which too showed that he was out. Yasir’s innings didn’t long much after his captain’s dismissal as he too was caught near square leg by Devendra Bishoo after he tried being audacious against a short delivery from West Indian skipper Jason Holder. It looked like West Indies would capitalise on this moment of getting two batsmen out in quick successions as they the hosts had two new batsmen i.e wicket keeper Sarfraz Ahmed and all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz at the crease. These two had little tight moments at the crease as the visitors had their fast bowlers bowling in tandem. In between all this, Holder also got Bishoo into the attack who had only one wicket in the first innings of opener Sami Aslam. These variations worked for the visitors for some time but soon both the batsmen got accustomed to the visitors bowling and looked well-settled.
This is the time where the West Indian failed to make more variations or else some attacking field setting. Their bowlers tried to stick to the wicket and this lead to both Sarfraz and Nawaz freeing their arms and dissecting the fielders for some glorious boundaries of the day. Both went on to put a partnership of 70 runs from 17.1 for the 7th wicket which just took the game away from West Indies. When Nawaz had walked in to bat, Pakistan had lost 6 wickets for the score of 342, but the 70 runs stand between them took them across the border of 412 when Sarfraz departed. It also took a very special delivery from Gabriel to dismiss Sarfraz who had just got to his half-century. Gabriel went little away from his bowling mark to release the ball which was a directed low full-toss. The batsman could never get the hang of the ball as he was beaten on all ends. Sarfraz scored 56 runs from 59 which were laced with 6
