Stumps, Day 4, third Test
Pakistan 281 & 208
West Indies 337 & 114/5 (36.0 ov)
(West Indies require another 39 runs with five wickets remaining)
SHARJAH // Jason Holder is on the brink of celebrating a first Test win as West Indies captain, after Pakistan swapped supremacy for slapstick at Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
The Caribbean side have five wickets in hand, needing 39 runs on Day 5 to force a consolation victory, after Holder’s first five-wicket haul in Tests limited their target to 153.
For all Holder’s personal excellence with the ball, if victory does arrive on Thursday, it will have been a gift-wrapped early birthday present for a bowler who turns 25 on Saturday.
Having surrendered a first-innings lead of 56, Pakistan collapsed in their second innings, with a rash of dismissals that ranged from careless to comic.
See more on the third Test between Pakistan and West Indies:
• Day 4: Jason Holder's 5-30 put West Indies within touching distance
• Day 3: Pakistan can find no way past 'West Indies Wall'
• Day 2: Kraigg Brathwaite pushes for century against Pakistan
• Day 1: West Indies finally get some wind in their sails
Uncharacteristically, Misbah-ul-Haq, the captain who has done so much to lead Pakistan away from the bad old days when implosions were the norm, was one of the main culprits.
First, he played a shoddy shot to hasten Pakistan’s collapse to 208 all out. Then he dropped a simple catch off Leon Johnson in the slips off Mohammed Amir in the first over of the West Indies reply.
Amir’s own dismissal had summed up the carnage. He thought he had hit West Indies leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo for six, only for Roston Chase to claw the ball back into play as he tumbled while he tried to take the catch on the long-on boundary.
As Amir and Wahab Riaz ambled about in the middle, believing the ball to have crossed the boundary, Chase lobbed the ball back in, where Holder removed the bails. Just for good measure, Amir dropped his bat as he frantically sought to make his ground.
When Misbah, and then Sami Aslam, botched easy chances off Amir’s bowling at the start of the West Indies chase, it seemed as though the wheels had come off the Pakistan challenge.
Then Yasir Shah was handed the ball. The leg-spinner dismissed Leon Johnson, Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels in quick succession. When Wahab Riaz then struck twice, the West Indies were mired at 67 for five, with victory seemingly a long way off.
It was left to Kraigg Brathwaite, who has now faced over 400 balls in this match without yet being dismissed, and Shane Dowrich to steady the nerves of the away dressing room.
“We have to stay as calm as possible and bat what is in front of us, in a way try not to think about the board because that is what creates the pressure,” Toby Radford, the West Indies batting coach, said.
“Pick up the ones and twos, don’t rush to get there, and eat away at the target. If it takes till tea time. There is no rush to get there.”
Mickey Arthur, the Pakistan coach, said his batsmen deserved some mercy for the way they have played in Sharjah, with the series win already sealed in Abu Dhabi last week.
He cited the “outstanding effort” they have put in over the past two months, following on quickly from a tough assignment in England, as a reason to forgive their tired thinking in the middle.
“I can’t fault the players,” Arthur said. “They have been here for eight weeks now, after having 10 days off after a very long UK tour. But it was almost a mission accomplished for us before this Test match.”
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