West Indies 137 and 54 for 5 (Louis 13, Sajid 4-25) need another 197 runs to win Pakistan 230 and 157 (Masood 52, Hurraira 29, Warrican 7-32)
The omens were there. The day started with Pakistan’s best spin player falling on the first delivery of the day when Saud Shakeel clipped one to short midfield. Warrican followed up with the wicket of Rizwan the next, and on a pitch where grip and spin became increasingly variable, Pakistan’s batsmen found it hard work.
Kamran Ghulam had stayed on until then, but an extra turn brought in his outside edge to give Warrican their first five-wicket haul in Test cricket. West Indies began to dig into the tail as Warrican gained confidence. He varied his pace to catch Noman Ali in front of the stumps while attempting a reverse sweep, before reaching seven when Sajid missed a slog and got a lead to point back.
The ninth wicket didn’t register directly in Warrican’s account, but it might as well have. Salman Ali Agha pushed one into offside before diving for a single, but Warrican collected it cleanly and hit the stumps straight, trapping Khurram Shahzad outside his crease. The innings concluded with Salman attempting to edge Gudakesh Motie, only to find himself far away, and Pakistan were bowled out for 157.
But West Indies still had around 15 overs to face before lunch, and Pakistan have all but secured victory in this time. The visitors started with positive intentions, having realized that pushing and shoving would get them nowhere. It helped them get through the first four overs, but as Sajid said after the second day, the strategy was to attack with the ball and defend with the field. Brathwaite employed the slow sweep to good effect, so Pakistan had a fielder in deep midwicket, and it was he who the opener chose to give the West Indies their first breakthrough.
With a prodigious turn, especially towards the right outside the tracks, the stumps were always in play, and he helped Sajid clean up Mikyle Louis and Kavem Hodge to reduce the West Indies to 37 for 4. Noman, who surprisingly had not Open bowling from the other end, he came into the attack and picked up a wicket just before lunch when Justin Greaves missed a risk-laden sweep in front of middle stump.
Pakistan are halfway to victory in this latest innings and, on a surface like this, one suspects the other half could follow quite soon.
