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Thursday, February 20, 2025

Pakistan spinners too much for West Indies batsmen

by

SPORTS DESK
33 days ago
20250119
West Indies Jomel Warrican, third from left, celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Pakistan’s Salman Ali Agha during the day two of the first test cricket match between Pakistan and West Indies, in Multan, Pakistan, yesterday. (AP Photo/Asim Tanveer)

West Indies Jomel Warrican, third from left, celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Pakistan’s Salman Ali Agha during the day two of the first test cricket match between Pakistan and West Indies, in Multan, Pakistan, yesterday. (AP Photo/Asim Tanveer)

Asim Tanveer

MUL­TAN, Pak­istan – Spin mae­stros No­man Ali and Sajid Khan left the West In­dies reel­ing on the sec­ond day of the first Test in Mul­tan, pro­pelling Pak­istan to a com­mand­ing po­si­tion on Sat­ur­day.

The duo shared nine wick­ets to bun­dle out the re­gion­al side for a mere 137 in re­sponse to Pak­istan’s 230 all-out ear­li­er in the day. By stumps, Pak­istan had ex­tend­ed their lead to 202, reach­ing 109-3 in their sec­ond in­nings.

Kam­ran Ghu­lam and Saud Sha­keel were un­beat­en on 9 and 2, re­spec­tive­ly, when bad light halt­ed play 25 min­utes ear­ly.

Jomel War­ri­can pro­vid­ed a rare bright spot for the West In­dies, claim­ing 2-17, as the Ba­jan left-armer dis­missed open­er Muham­mad Hur­raira for 29 and then trapped Pak­istan cap­tain Babar Azam lbw for just 5.

War­ri­can al­so ef­fect­ed a sharp run-out to end Shan Ma­sood’s com­posed in­nings of 52, which fea­tured two six­es and two fours.

The Mul­tan pitch, dry and grass­less, has been a spin­ner’s par­adise, yield­ing 22 wick­ets in just six ses­sions de­spite weath­er in­ter­rup­tions to­talling over three hours across two days.

No­man Ali (5-39) claimed his sev­enth five-wick­et haul in Tests, while Sajid Khan (4-65) was equal­ly lethal. The West In­dies in­nings last­ed just 25.2 overs, with both spin­ners prov­ing un­playable.

Sajid struck ear­ly, dis­miss­ing Mikyle Louis (1), Kea­cy Car­ty (0), Kraigg Brath­waite (11), and Kavem Hodge (4) in a fiery open­ing spell. No­man con­tin­ued the de­mo­li­tion, re­duc­ing the vis­i­tors to a dis­mal 66-8.

The tailen­ders re­sist­ed briefly, with Jomel War­ri­can (31 not out), Gu­dakesh Motie (19), and Jay­den Seales (22) adding cru­cial runs. Seales en­ter­tained with three six­es be­fore falling to Abrar Ahmed.

Ear­li­er, Pak­istan re­sumed at 143-4 but lost their last six wick­ets for 43 runs. Saud Sha­keel top-scored with a re­silient 84 off 157 balls, sup­port­ed by Mo­ham­mad Rizwan’s 71. The pair added a vi­tal 141 runs for the fifth wick­et, res­cu­ing Pak­istan from 46-4.

Guyanese off-spin­ner Kevin Sin­clair sparked the col­lapse, dis­miss­ing Sha­keel and Rizwan quick­ly. Rizwan, who struck nine bound­aries in his 133-ball knock, was trapped leg-be­fore on re­view while at­tempt­ing a re­verse sweep.

War­ri­can wrapped up Pak­istan’s in­nings just be­fore lunch, dis­miss­ing Sajid Khan for 18 af­ter a brisk cameo. War­ri­can fin­ished with 3-69 with Sin­clair bag­ging two wick­ets for 61 runs. Jay­den Seales man­aged to pick up three wick­ets for 27 runs.

SUM­MARISED SCORES

PAK­ISTAN 230 all out in 68.5 overs (Saud Sha­keel 84, Mo­ham­mad Rizwan 71, Sajid Khan 18; Jay­den Seales 3-27. Jomel War­ri­can 3-69, Kevin Sin­clair 2-61) & 109-3 (Shan Ma­sood 52, Muham­mad Hur­raira 29. Jomel War­ri­can 2-17) vs WEST IN­DIES 137 all out in 25.2 overs (Jomel War­ri­can 31 not out, Jay­den Seales 22, Gu­dakesh Motie 19. No­man Ali 5-39, Sajid Khan 4-65).

(CMC)


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