DUBAI // Asia’s first pink-ball Test is only one day old, and it has already thrown up various new problems. What to call the 30-minute breaks between sessions? Tea and dinner, apparently. And the sessions themselves? Afternoon, evening, and night, we think.
Is the ball still clearly visible from the stands when the lacquer and iridescent paint wears off, against an abrasive batting wicket? Generally, yes, or at least until about 70 overs in.
The biggest question remains tantalisingly unanswered, though. Can day-night Tests, played using a luminous ball, at benign times for the working public, save international cricket’s longest, oldest format from extinction?
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It is far too early to give an informed judgement. But the first impressions were lukewarm. A rudimentary count suggested there were 68 people – bar the sundry staff going about their work – in the ground when Shannon Gabriel sent down the first over to Sami Aslam.
OK, so it was still 3.30pm. Office hours were ongoing. Parents might still have been navigating the last vestiges of the school run. And more people did come in after 5pm.
But even at its peak, the crowd was paltry, perhaps around 600 at best. Whatever the exact figure was, this Test is going to have to go some way over the next four days to match the 123,000 – and that in just three days – who made it through the gates for the first day-night Test, in Australia.
Hanging the whole experiment on this one day would be harsh, of course. This series was always going to be a tough sell, against a West Indies side denuded of all of its household names, on what – despite their record here – remains neutral territory for Pakistan. Still, though, a better turnout on Friday's Day 2 would raise the soul.
At least Pakistan continue to find answers. The age-old conundrum about the first-wicket pairing had an emphatic reply on this opening day and night.
Aslam and Azhar Ali, who are playing their second match in harness at the top of the order, having been pushed together at the end of the summer tour of England, shared an unflustered alliance worth 215.
To emphasise the travails they have had filling the opener roles, it was only the third opening partnership worth more than 100 by Pakistan in the first innings of a Test in the past 20 years. Their eventual tally was the fourth-highest ever for Pakistan’s first wicket.
Aslam fell 10 short of his century, under-edging a sweep off the off-spin of Roston Chase. Despite the departure of his partner, Azhar continued unchecked, other than a brief pause because of cramp.
His century was his 11th, in his 50th Test match. That haul puts him level in the list of Test centuries for Pakistan with Saeed Anwar.
One more, and he will be alongside the great Zaheer Abbas, which goes to show what an impressive career Pakistan’s one-day captain has carved out for himself while his team have been in exile.
The National verdict
After a tortuous tour so far, West Indies could have really done with some early success in this game. No joy. Jason Holder called wrong at the toss, and Pakistan coasted along untroubled for the next 68 overs.
It was such docile going on the opening day that even the beleaguered Caribbean players will have some semblance of optimism that there are runs in the pitch for them, too, when they get their chance.
That could still be a long time yet, though. The way Pakistan are going, they can pick their score, and crush their opposition’s spirit in the process.
pradley@thenational.ae
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