Pakistan on back foot as Bishoo and Gabriel star for West Indies

Ajit Vijaykumar 19:12 30/10/2016
West Indies enjoyed a good opening day in Sharjah.

Pakistan have won eight straight matches against the West Indies. When results become repetitive, some complacency is bound to creep in.

In the third Test in Sharjah, the hosts looked to force the issue on a slow outfield despite being on top during big chunks of the opening day and ended up giving the Windies control by stumps, stuttering to 255 for eight.

Once again, Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first. The wicket in Sharjah had some moisture and was expected to assist the seamers early on. But even the most ardent of Caribbean supporters wouldn’t have expected the wickets of Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq to fall off the first four balls of the match.

The freshness of the pitch combined with the raw pace of Shanon Gabriel helped get Ali caught at slip and Shafiq was trapped lbw falling over to the quick bowler.

The situation warranted cautious batting for the rest of the day but Pakistan couldn’t stop themselves from going for the big shots even though they could have batted the Windies out of the game.

A pattern emerged as set batsmen gifted their wickets with some terrible shot selection.

Opener Sami Aslam and Younis Khan steadied the ship after the early strikes, adding 106 for the third wicket before veteran Younis (51) decided to sweep spinner Roston Chase without even getting on top of the bounce. The ugly slog resulted in a top edge that was easily taken at mid-wicket.

If Younis’ dismissal was surprising, Aslam’s was indescribable. The left-handed batsman was batting with ease but in the first over after tea, decided to reverse sweep leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo and was caught at slip. A well crafted innings of 74 fell short of a deserved century. Aslam must have taken a leaf out of Misbah’s book, who was intent on sweeping and reverse-sweeping his way to a big score.

Sadly, with the score on 230 for four and just about an hour’s play left in the day, Pakistan lost their marbles.

Bishoo was reverse swept once again, this time the ball spooning to the keeper after brushing Misbah’s forearm. The umpire gave him out and the review didn’t change the decision. While the call could have gone either way, the shot just wasn’t on. The skipper was gone after reaching his fifty.

“I am obviously sad to miss out on a century,” Aslam said after the day’s play. “The outfield was very slow and we lost out on many boundaries. So the batsmen had to be a bit more forceful. That’s where we committed mistakes. While the fast bowlers did well in the first hour, later on the batsmen played some poor shots.”

From then on, it was a procession. Bishoo drew Mohammad Nawaz out for an expansive shot and had him easily stumped. And three overs later, wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed, who too had shuffled his way to a half-century (51 off 60 balls), inside edged Gabriel onto his stumps.

When Bishoo had Wahab Riaz trapped plumb in front in the 81st over, the momentum was well and truly with the Windies.

While the visitors will be glad that Bishoo (4-74) and Gabriel (3-58) found their grove on a pitch that was decent for batting, Pakistan must be wondering how they ended up on the back foot after four of their batsmen reach fifty.

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