West Indies take first submission lead on Topsy-Turvy opening day

Pakistan’s final-hour collapse left them nine short of West Indies’ first innings of 163 in a 20-wicket opening day of the second Test in Multan on Saturday and took the shine off Noman Ali’s historic hat-trick earlier in the day. Mohammad Rizwan’s 49 and his 68-run partnership with Saud Shakeel (32) formed the backbone of Pakistan’s reply, but collapses either side of it meant West Indies clawed their way back into the competition to take Day 1 honors courtesy of the All-Round Show of Gudakesh Motie (3-49 & 55), Kemar Roach (2-15 & 25) and Jomel Warrican (4-43 & 36*).

Roach and Motie sparked a top-order collapse with two each in the post-lunch. Roach hit in his third over and got the ball to nibble in to beat the inside edge of Muhammad Hurraira’s bat and beat him under the knee roll in front of the stumps. The opener went through but to no avail. Motie, who opened the attack for West Indies, joined the action in the following over and sent Babaz Azam packing for just one. Pakistan lost their third in as many overs when Roach got rid of the second opener and got the fuller ball to seam in and get an inside edge off Shan Masood’s bat before crashing into the stumps.

After slipping to 25/3 inside eight overs, a brief partnership of 26 between Kamran Ghulam and Saud Shakeel followed, but Motie intervened again to give West Indies the edge. Ghulam came forward to defend and ended up blasting a catch to silly mid-off where Alick Athanaze took a well-judged catch. Shakeel and Rizwan took the hosts to tea at 70/4.

The duo continued to rebuild for Pakistan in the final session, with Rizwan taking the lead and an attacking mode briefly. In the end it took a superb diving catch at full stretch from Roach to produce a wicket out of nowhere, the first of Warrican’s four in the innings. The implosion from there was quick as Warrican outfoxed Rizwan with a delivery that dipped and squared to send him stumping short of a fifty.

A ball later, New-Bat Noman traded a defensive push to pop a catch to Athanaze at short leg. Salman Agha was bowled and tried to cut one that kept a bit low and took underge. Warrican picked up his fourth in the ensuing over when Abrar Ahmed went for an ill-advised strike and missed. Kashif Ali’s run-out in the following over had Pakistan bowled out for 154.

History-maker Noman was the Wrecker-in-Chief of another top-order top-order collapse as the visitors slipped to 54/8 inside 17 overs on a turning track after electing to bat first. The Tail – Motie, Roach and Warrican – then put up a fight to help the visitors to a relatively respectable first innings score of 163 in an extended morning session.

West Indies’ batting struggle against spin continued for the third consecutive innings on this tour. However, it was the pace of Pakistan debutant Kashif Ali who struck the first blow of the morning as he struck in his very first in international cricket to send back Mikyle Louis. Next to depart was the West Indies’ debutant, caught LBW by Sajid Khan without troubling the scorers.

Noman then joined the action with a first-over wicket to break the budding partnership between Kraigg Brathwaite and Kavem Hodge as he caught the skipper LBW for nine. Brathwaite reviewed but to no avail. Justin Greaves became the first victim of his hat-trick in his next over, edged to slip where Babar Azam took a neat catch. Tevin Imlach went for a pre-meditated sweep first ball and was caught plumb in front. Noman completed the hat-trick with the wicket of Kevin Sinclair, courtesy another sharp, low catch from Babar at Gully this time.

Just before the hat-trick, Sajid had Alick Athanaze LBW with an arm ball that angled back and hit the front pad as the batter tried to reverse sweep. After witnessing the collapse from the other end, Hodge fell on 21 to Abrar Ahmed. He also fell trying to sweep-to get a top edge that went to short leg on the rebound after hitting the batter’s helmet.

At a time when it looked as if the West Indies might soon fold, resistance came from the lower order once again and a 41-run partnership emerged between Motie (55) and Roach (25). Together, the pair set the West Indies on course for a face-saving score in triple figures. However, Noman had Roach caught LBW Plumb to end his fifer, and later Motie to make it an innings of 6 for 41. As in the previous Test, Warrican entertained with his attacking batting as the visitors had nothing to lose. With Motie, he put on a 68 for the last wicket partnership and hit two towering sixes en route to his unbeaten 40-ball cameo of 36.

Brief Score: West Indies 163 (Gudakesh Motie 55, Jomel Warrican 36*; Noman Ali 6-41, Sajid Khan 2-64) Lead Pakistan 154 (Mohammad Rizwan 49; Jomel Warrican 4-43, Gudakesh Motie 3-49) by 9 runs