West Indies bowlers bounced back towards the ending stages on the third session to halt Pakistan at 172 for 3 at stumps, on Day Two of the second Test at Barbados. Devendra Bishoo picked up 2 wickets in form of Ahmed Shehzad (70) and Younis Khan (0) along with Shannon Gabriel, who got rid of Babar Azam, in quick succession to put the visitors in a spot of bother at the end of day’s play. Pakistan have their opener Azhar Ali batting on 81 along with skipper Misbah-ul-Haq at 7* as they still trail the West Indies’ total of 312 by 140 runs.
Resuming at 106 for no loss, Azhar and Shehzad continued playing with the same momentum. They kept on defending a majority of deliveries and dealt in ones and twos. But it was just a matter of few overs as Shehzad, who was having a tough time scoring runs, shifted his batting gears. He didn’t go all guns blazing but looked more confident in facing the spinners and danced down the track against anything that was tossed up. Getting down the track enabled him to deal in boundaries and also raise his half-century — overall fourth of his career and first since 2015.
Having got to his fifty, confidence seeped in Shehzad as he scored more freely, and rotation of the strike regularity. It started looking glum for West Indies as both the batsmen were quite set, but completely against the run of play, Bishoo dished out a leg break, drawing Shehzad (70) forward to defend. But beaten in the turn, Shehzad thick-edged the ball to first slip where Shai Hope took a sharp catch just a few inches above the ground.
This wicket saw the opening stand of 155 runs coming to an abrupt end, but Jason Holder brought in Gabriel from the other end seeing a small opening hoping to make more damage. Two deliveries later, Babar (0) who had just walked in popped a leading edge to Gabriel trying to work a length delivery on the leg side. Suddenly having got 2 wickets in a matter of 3 deliveries, West Indies earned an upper hand.
Younis fell into the trap set by the hosts quickly. Bishoo bowled a short delivery asking Younis to hammer it through midwicket, but instead, he picked up Gabriel who was stationed at short midwicket putting Pakistan in a spot of bother. From 155 for no loss, Pakistan were pulled down to 161 for 3 towards the end of the day.
Azhar, who had lost three different partners in a matter of a mere 6 runs, saw some respite as Misbah-ul-Haq walked into bat. The task in front of these two batsmen was to rebuild their stuttering innings and also with the amount of time the openers had taken, the pressure had boomeranged on Pakistan.
But utilising his experience, Misbah managed to battle out the few initial overs. But despite both batsmen being on defensive mode, the Caribbean bowlers gave no margin for error giving away just 11 runs in 56 deliveries. Bad light eventually came into play as the day’s play was called off early.
Initially, on Day Two, pacer Mohammad Abbas took his career-best figures of 4 for 56 dismantling the entire West Indies innings at 312. Overnight batsman Holder (58) and centurion Roston Chase (131) were dismissed on the in the first and second over of the day respectively. Apart from Abbas, Mohammad Aamer took 3 wickets playing vital role to stop the hosts from piling up runs on Day Two.
Brief scores:
West Indies 312 (Roston Chase 131, Jason Holder 58; Mohammad Abbas 4 for 56, Mohammad Aamer 3 for 65) lead Pakistan for 172 for 3 (Azhar Ali 81*, Ahmed Shehzad 70, Misbah-ul-Haq 7*; Devendra Bishoo 2 for 53, Shannon Gabriel 1 for 45) by 140 runs.
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