Abu Dhabi: As the sun started to fade at the Shaikh Zayed Stadium, the Windies fortunes suddenly plunged into darkness with two wickets falling in quick succession on the second day of their second Test against Pakistan on Saturday.
A well set Marlon Samuels (30) and Kraigg Brathwaite (21), who looked as if they would survive to fight another day were set back and the visitors, trying to stay afloat in the Test series, were left in troubled waters. At stumps, the visitors were tottering 106 for four in 45 overs, still trailing by 346 runs.
Rahat Ali managed an edge off the blade of Samuels and in the second ball of the next over, Brathwaite was run out after night-watchman Devendra Bishoo chose not to respond.
West Indies opener Brathwaite was padded up but couldn’t open the batting for being off the field for three minutes too long, but that change of guard paid off for the men from the Caribbean.
Darren Bravo, who scored a ton in the first Test, stepped in and grabbed that opportunity. He weathered Pakistan’s potent new ball bowlers and was following the similar path he took in Dubai to reach a position of strength.
However, Yasir Shah ended Bravo’s defiance while on 43 by taking the DRS referral which showed the latter caught plumb in front. With that scalp, Shah became only the second bowler to take 50 or more wickets in the UAE after Saeed Ajmal in Tests. Ali finished with 2 for 31 and he did the early damage with the wicket of Leon Johnson, who had worked hard for his 19 before falling leg before.
Earlier, Shannon Gabriel picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests as West Indies bowled Pakistan out for 452 in 119.1 overs. Younis Khan on Friday, after scoring his 33rd Test hundred and setting the record of being the World’s best player to have coped well in the nervous 90s, had said how he makes a conscious effort not to ‘go after the runs and let the runs come to him’.
However, his skipper and long serving senior partner Misbah failed to follow that cue and was out four runs short of what could have been his 11th Test ton.
The last six times the Pakistan skipper resumed his innings overnight, he had added no runs to his score four times, a four and a 51. This time round, Misbah added six more to his score of 90 before falling leg before to Gabriel after missing a flick.
A reluctantly taken review couldn’t save Misbah from missing out on the century for the third time in this career after getting into the 90s. However, he continues to rule at the capital venue and holds the record for being the top-scorer after having swelled his runs tally to a record 994 in 14 innings from nine matches at an average of 99.40.
From 304 for four overnight, Pakistan then slipped to 342 for six but Sarfraz Ahmad (51) and Mohammad Nawaz (16) 70-run stand took Pakistan past the 400-mark. In all, Pakistan scored 97 runs in the first session at just over four an over.
Twice in two successive deliveries from Gabriel, Sohail Khan got a reprieve because of the decision review system (DRS) and that would have been a reassurance for the Indian counterpart (BCCI), who on Friday had reluctantly accepted to try out DRS during the forthcoming England series. With Khan’s resistance ending at 26, Pakistan innings folded quickly in an hour after lunch.
