Innings Pakistan 579 for 3 dec and 123 (Aslam 44, Bishoo 8-49) lead West Indies 357 (Bravo 87, Samuels 76, Yasir 5-121) by 345 runs
Devendra Bishoo collected career-best figures of 8 for 49 © AFP
After Yasir Shah’s three wickets – which brought him a five-wicket haul and his 100th Test scalp – helped Pakistan secure a 222-run first-innings lead, Devendra Bishoo hit back with a career-best 8 for 49 to skittle Pakistan out for 123 and bring West Indies roaring back with an outside chance of victory.
Having declined to impose the follow-on, Pakistan chased quick runs and lost two early wickets before tea. Sami Aslam and Babar Azam put on 57 off 70 after the interval to steady the innings and swiftly build the lead. But Bishoo then benefitted from some loose shots, some ambitious shots and some good, spinning deliveries to rip through Pakistan with seven wickets on either side of the dinner break.
With the score at 77 for 2 and the lead at 299, Azam played a loose cross-batted shot onto his stumps off Bishoo. Aslam played a late cut into the hands of Jermaine Blackwood at first slip and Misbah-ul-Haq was bowled after a slog sweep that failed to connect. The left-handed Mohammad Nawaz shouldered arms on his third ball, only to see a fizzing leg break hone into his off stump. When Wahab Riaz miscued a slog sweep to Kraigg Brathwaite at deep midwicket, Bishoo had his sixth of the innings. Jason Holder then got Yasir caught and bowled off the last ball before dinner, to cap off a period of play in which Pakistan lost six wickets for the addition of 44 runs.
Bishoo wrapped up the innings within five balls of the resumption, getting Sarfraz Ahmend stumped before hitting Mohammad Amir’s middle stump, his fourth bowled dismissal of the innings. Bishoo’s plunder and Pakistan’s slump still left West Indies with a daunting target of 346, but they could hardly have dreamed of a better outcome at the start of the day.
Day four began much as day three had done – with a wicket for Yasir. A very full leg break from Yasir pitched just in line with the stumps and spun in before hitting the batsman’s pads. Dowrich had played across the line and missed and was lbw.
Bishoo and Holder then survived a stern short-ball examination from Amir and Wahab, putting on a 21-run stand that raised West Indies’ hopes extending their resistance. That was not to be – Yasir got through Holder’s defences with a tossed up googly and then bowled Miguel Cummins with a big-spinning leg break that evaded the batsman’s wild swipe. That was Yasir’s 100th wicket and it left West Indies nine down. Nawaz finished the job in the next over. It had taken Pakistan just 14.5 overs to take the four wickets they required.
Sirish Raghavan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo