Tea West Indies 224 (Bravo 43, Holder 31*, Yasir 4-86) trail Pakistan 452 by 228 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Yasir took two quick wickets with the second new ball © Getty Images
Save for a frustrating 27-run tenth-wicket partnership, Pakistan maintained an iron grip on proceedings on day three in Abu Dhabi, stifling the batsmen while picking up regular wickets to bowl West Indies out for 224 and establish a formidable 228-run first-innings lead. Yasir Shah led the way with 4 for 86, and was well supported by Rahat Ali and Sohail Khan as Pakistan picked up 118 for 6 on a slow, attritional day in which West Indies managed to absorb 49.4 overs of play.
Yasir’s two wickets with the second new ball reduced West Indies to 178 for 8 shortly after lunch. On the first delivery with that second new ball, Yasir found the outside edge of an extravagant drive from Roston Chase and Asad Shafiq completed a sharp catch at second slip. In his next over, Yasir bowled Shai Hope when the batsman missed an attempted pull off a short ball that kept low.
Yasir could have had a third when Jason Holder played an inside-out drive in the air to long-off, where Mohammad Nawaz dropped the catch. Instead, it was Sohail who broke the 19-run ninth-wicket partnership, when he angled a ball across Miguel Cummins to beat the bat and hit off stump, much as he had done to Devendra Bishoo earlier in the day. Holder and Shannon Gabriel then chipped in with a few lusty blows, before Gabriel holed out to mid-on to bring an end to the innings.
Having lost two wickets in the last seven balls on the previous day, West Indies began the third day well behind the game, trailing by 346 in the first innings with four wickets down. Nightwatchman Bishoo might understandably have been carrying a few scars from the second evening, having been involved – and arguably culpable – in the run-out of Kraigg Brathwaite in the last over of the day. But he shrugged all of that off to occupy the crease for a gutsy 66-ball knock that, while not always convincing, helped West Indies repel many of Pakistan’s early efforts.
Bishoo’s overnight partner, Jermaine Blackwood, departed about half an hour into the session with only 15 runs having been added to the overnight score of 106 for 4. Blackwood took a couple of steps down the track, before playing a loose, half-hearted drive to a Rahat delivery moving away from him; Sarfraz Ahmed collected a good, low catch to his right.
Bishoo struggled against Rahat’s outswing, repeatedly playing and missing outside off stump with no footwork. He got off the mark in his 20th ball with a cross-batted swipe through midwicket off Yasir. His first boundary came off his 50th ball with a similar shot, this time off Zulfiqar Babar. By that stage, Bishoo’s stubborn knock was vexing Pakistan. In Babar’s next over, the bowler went up for a big lbw appeal after Bishoo missed a sweep; Pakistan reviewed the not-out decision, only to find that the impact was just outside off. That exhausted Pakistan’s reviews.
But Bishoo did not last too much longer. He had his off stump floored by Sohail who angled the ball away from the left-hander to beat his outside edge and give Pakistan their second wicket of the morning.
A partnership of 23 off 71 between Bishoo and Roston Chase followed. When that was broken, West Indies’ innings came to a standstill. Chase and Hope added just 7 in the 49 balls leading into lunch, and then fell to Yasir within three overs of each other when the second new ball was taken. By then, Pakistan were just two nagging lower-order partnerships away from securing a big first-innings lead and cementing their dominant position in the match.
Sirish Raghavan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo