Shakeel and Rizwan revive Pakistan to 143-4 in 1st Test against West Indies

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) – Half-centuries from Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan revived Pakistan to 143-4 after the top batsmen stumbled in the first cricket Test against the West Indies on Friday.

Shakeel made a gritty unbeaten 56 and Rizwan was not out on 51 on Day 1 as they rebuilt Pakistan on a difficult dry wicket tailor-made for spinners.

The start of the Test match between the two bottom-placed teams in the World Test Championship was delayed by four hours due to heavy fog and mist in Multan. Fast bowler Jayden Seales’ (3-21) triple strike then left Pakistan 46-4 in the first hour.

But Shakeel and Rizwan stabilized the innings with their unbroken stand of 97 runs and increased the scoring rate in an hour-long final session which produced 57 runs.

Both batsmen used their feet well against the three West Indian spinners and swept the bad balls for boundaries during their aggressive batting after tea.

Pakistan and West Indies packed their playing XIs with three specialist spinners each, but it was Seales who made an early impression with the new ball.

Left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie (1-45) also had the bats tied during his unchanged 14-over spell and there was noticeable turn for slow bowlers from ball one after Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.

Seales found the outside edge of debutant Mohammad Hurraira (6) in his third over and captain Shan Masood (11) got a weak edge down the leg side towards Motie, giving Tevin Imlach his second catch in his debut Test match.

Seales consistently hit the tough lengths in his nine-over sharp opening form and unsettled Pakistan batsmen with his seam and swing. Kamran Ghulam (5) was dismissed legs before the wicket as he offered no shot to an impeccable in-swinger just one ball after driving Seales to cover the boundary for four.

Seales then made further inroads when he had the prized wicket of Babar Azam (8), who also edged behind the wicket and departed after facing 20 nervous balls.

Pakistan is no. 8, and West Indies is no. 9 on the WTC points table after performing below par over the last year in testing. Australia and South Africa have already qualified for the WTC finals on 11-15 June at Lord’s.

Pakistan have lost eight of their last 10 Test matches, while the West Indies are yet to win a Test series in this WTC cycle, losing to India, England and South Africa and drawing against Australia and Bangladesh.

One of the two Pakistani victories came at the Multan Cricket Stadium and on the same ground when it beat England on an engineered dry wicket to favor the spin duo of Sajid Khan and Noman Ali.

West Indies dropped vice-captain Joshua Da Silva after the wicketkeeper-batsman failed to impress in the three-day warm-up match against Pakistan Shaheens, and the tourists are also without ill fast bowler Kemar Roach.

___

AP cricket:

Associated Press