Pak v WI (3rd Test, Day1)

PAKISTAN were all out for 304 on the second morning of the third and final test against the West Indies in Karachi.

Umer Gul was the last man to go bowled by Powell for an impressive 24. Kamran Akmal started well by striking successive boundaries off Taylor in the first over of the morning. Shahid Nazir, however, had his middle stump uprooted in the following over. West Indies took the second new ball in the 93^rd over of the innings and reaped rewards straight away as Collymore bowled Kamran Akmal for 31.

Earlier Mohammad Yousuf rounded up a record-breaking penultimate innings of the year by hitting yet another century. The 102 he scored, his eight century of the year, helped him go past the record of 7 centuries held jointly Viv Richards and Arvinda de Silva. Yousuf also started his innings 148 runs shy of Viv Richards’ record of the most number of runs in a calendar year. He now needs 47 more to break that 30-year old record. Yousuf’s century was his fifth in successive matches thus equaling Jaques Kallis’ five and one behind Don Bradman’s record of six.

Apart from Yousuf’s effort on the pitch, Pakistan put on an otherwise dismal performance after winning the toss and batting first on a flat pitch that showed wear and tear right from the first morning. Mohammad Hafeez and Imran Farhat started well yet again but Hafeez’s expansive drive saw his off stump uprooted by Collymore. Younis’ aggressive 20 was ended when taking a non-existant single with the ball ending up in Powell’s follow through. Farhat struck some exquisite off-drives but succumbed to yet-another flash well outside his off stump for a 92-ball 47.

Struggling Inzamam and the in-form Yousuf shared a 68-run partnership but Inzamam’s bad run with the bat continued when he holed out to mid-off for only 18. Malik chipped in with an unspectacular 18 while Razzaq will have more criticism piled his way for an uncharacteristic, yet normal of late, seven off 50 deliveries.

In a match West Indies must win to take anything away from the test series, their vice captain Ramneresh Sarwan was brought back into the team at the surprise omission of Dave Mohammed. Pakistan, however, named an unchanged team; only the second time in their history that an unchanged team has played out the entire test series.

© Faras Ghani 2006

Published in The Star 28th Nov 2006