West Indies v Pakistan, 1st Test (26–29 May)
- West Indies won the toss and elected to bat.
- The match was scheduled for five days but completed in four.
- Bazid Khan (PAK) made his Test debut.
A weakened Pakistan without Inzamam-ul-Haq (banned), Shoaib Malik (banned) and Yousuf Youhana (a sick father) went in with a bat-heavy team, with five pure batsmen and two all-rounders plus the wicketkeeper against a West Indies team who could field a first-choice eleven – only lacking all-rounder Dwayne Bravo. Nevertheless, Pakistan went in as favourites in most people's eyes, only to go down in spectacular fashion. The West Indians won the toss, and chose to bat first, nearly regretting it as they lost an out-of-form Chris Gayle early on as he was caught in close by Abdul Razzaq off Shabbir Ahmed. Three overs later, Devon Smith – West Indies' other opener – was let off by Test debutant Bazid Khan who fielded at second slip, as he could not react to a ball that came towards his stomach. However, Bazid Khan kept his nerve a bit later when he held an edge from the man at the other end, Ramnaresh Sarwan, who was outdone by an away-swinger from Shabbir Ahmed, reducing West Indies to 25 for 2. After a bit of a steady period, where Brian Lara in particular looked in control of the bowlers, another catch went to slip as Yasir Hameed could take the edge off Devon Smith's bat for 19. At lunch, however, Lara (44*) and Chanderpaul (14*) had restored some honour for the West Indies, lifting them to 102 for 3 on what looked like a fast outfield. The two continued after tea, Shabbir Ahmed sending down a particularly poor over with three no-balls, three boundaries and a run four, and Brian Lara eventually raced to a magnificent 130 off 120 balls, with 16 fours and four sixes before being bowled attempting a cover drive. Down the order, Wavell Hinds contributed with 28, wicketkeeper Courtney Browne made 12, and Daren Powell made 10, but Pakistan also served up 24 no-balls to help the West Indian cause. Two wickets with four balls – Powell and Chanderpaul (caught at cover for 92) marked the end of the West Indian fight-back, however, in what shaped up to be an excellent game of Test cricket. With King and Edwards both gone for 3, West Indies were all out for 345.
Shahid Afridi then started in the usual way, smacking a six over midwicket with his eighth ball, although Daren Powell bowled well and Fidel Edwards with considerable pace. However, nothing more specific happened, apart from Edwards notching up a 94 mph (151 km/h) delivery, and Pakistan went to stumps on day 1 with 22 for no loss, the match evenly balanced. The second day's cricket was moderately entertaining, though, especially for a crowd that had despaired over the West Indians' poor performance all summer. The 23-year-old Edwards bowled with reasonable accuracy, and although the Pakistanis helped him with some poorly chosen shots, which meant that wickets fell all too regularly. Shahid Afridi was first out, unsurprisingly, edging an outswinger to slip, and the embarrassment continued with no batsman reaching more than Younis Khan's 31. However, Younis's innings was marred by the way he got out. Coming out after lunch with the score 96 for 5, he attempted a pull shot off Edwards' bowling, but mistimed it and ended up with an easy edge to Corey Collymore at midwicket. In short, Pakistan never seemed to take in the dire situation they were actually in, and eventually were all out for 144 – trailing by 201, two short of the follow-on target. However, Shiv Chanderpaul decided to have another go at batting – owing in part to Fidel Edwards' injury and also to the fear of a big come-back, and he decided to send his openers in. It worked well against the new-ball bowlers Naved-ul-Hasan and Shabbir Ahmed, as the West Indies scored 59 for no loss in 16 overs, but Abdul Razzaq precipitated a mini-collapse when he got Devon Smith caught behind for 10. Two overs later, West Indies were 65 for 3, Ramnaresh Sarwan out for 1 and Chris Gayle gone for 50. It could, in fact, have been 65 for 4, had Chanderpaul not been lucky first ball – it was a poor inside-edge that landed between the off stump and the wicketkeeper. However, the West Indies recovered, with Lara making another good score of 48 before missing a drive and being stumped off Shahid Afridi. However, the West Indies were in control at the end of day 2, leading by 369 runs and with 6 wickets in hand.
The West Indies to push onwards on day three. Wavell Hinds, 28 not out overnight, batted well with captain Chanderpaul to add a further 103 runs before lunch – when Hinds was bowled by Kaneria. The new batsman, wicketkeeper Courtney Browne, only lasted three overs before edging to the young Pakistani keeper Kamran Akmal, who eventually held the catch for 1. Daren Powell, however, hung on with Chanderpaul for long enough that the captain could reach his century, his first against Pakistan and his fourteenth Test ton overall – making 5. Fidel Edwards then made a quickfire 20, Reon King 5 and Corey Collymore a duck, leaving Chanderpaul stranded on 153 not out – his second highest score in Test cricket. However, that was enough to lift the West Indies to 371 – setting Pakistan the highest target in the West Indies since 1930, and the highest in world cricket for 25 years, as they required 572 to win the game.
Pakistan, however, got the worst imaginable start. Three balls into the innings, Fidel Edwards served up a ball that Salman Butt felt he had to play at; he came down the ground, edged it, and a beautiful catch from Chris Gayle resulted in Pakistan being one down without scoring a run. Despite Edwards leaving the field an over later, West Indies put on the pressure, and Yasir Hameed and Younis Khan misunderstood each other to cause a run out. Then, Yasir Hameed gave a regulation outside edge to Courtney Browne, who said thank you and held the ball in his gloves as Pakistan were 16 for three after just over five overs – and with Asim Kamal (10 Tests) and Bazid Khan (debutant) at the crease. Luckily for Pakistan, rain intervened, but when the players came back, Corey Collymore bowled a beautiful inswinger that hit Bazid Khan sharply on the pads, and the umpire easily gave him out. 47 for 4, and despite Asim Kamal and Shahid Afridi giving them quick runs – aided by the West Indians giving up a few no-balls – they got to stumps without losing a further wicket, with the score up to 113 for 4.
The fourth day was dominated by one man – Shahid Afridi. With the West Indies lacking the sting of Fidel Edwards' pace, their bowlers were smacked to all corners by the violent Afridi, who brought up his third Test century off 78 balls – the second fastest in this century – and despite Asim Kamal going for 55 off the bowling of Gayle, there were genuine, if misguided, hopes that Pakistan would win the match. However, those hopes were dashed when Afridi lofted a massive drive straight to captain Chanderpaul – meaning that Pakistan would still need 299 runs for the last four wickets. There was never any threat, and when Abdul Razzaq went for 41 – stumped off the bowling of Chris Gayle after a call that went to the TV umpire – three overs after lunch, the question became how big the win would become. With Chris Gayle removing both Kamran Akmal (bowled for 21) and Danish Kaneria (caught behind for 0) within the space of three balls, West Indies ended up with a surprising 276-run victory. [4]
West Indies v Pakistan, 2nd Test (3–7 June)
- Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.
The second Test between Pakistan and West Indies, at Kingston in Jamaica, was much more closely contested, but the return of Inzamam-ul-Haq and second-innings ducks for Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul decided the match – and squared the Test series. Pakistan was strengthened by the return of Inzamam-ul-Haq, who came in for Bazid Khan, and also exchanged Shoaib Malik for Salman Butt, while West Indies lacked an injured Fidel Edwards – top wicket taker for the West Indies in the last game – who was replaced by fellow fast bowler Tino Best. Best made his debut in the series, a rather uninspiring one, although he did take four wickets in a frantic spell on the morning of the fourth day.
The visitors won the toss, and batted first, losing Yasir Hameed as he gave a regulation edge to first slip Gayle off the bowling of Powell. Fellow opener Shoaib Malik lasted for much longer, pairing up with Younis Khan for 27, but looked uncertain at the crease and it was no surprise when he departed for 13. Some inconsistent bowling, particularly from Reon King, and fielding lapses gave Pakistan's star batsmen Younis and Inzamam the edge, however, as they smashed 97 runs in twenty overs with Inzamam doing the brunt of the damage with a 60-ball fifty. A straight ball from Chris Gayle undid him, however, but Asim Kamal continued the work that Younis and Inzamam had started as they fluently and easily brought up 200. Younis eventually got a century, finishing on 106, but Collymore was the pick of the afternoon session – he took three wickets, those of Younis, Asim Kamal and Shahid Afridi, as he had a real workhorse's afternoon and bowled tempting balls that beat the outside edge of the bat numerous times. It could have been even better for the West Indies, had not Tino Best been no-balled when he had Kamran Akmal caught behind, but the first day gave Pakistan the edge as they made 336 for 6.
Six balls into the morning session, Abdul Razzaq was lbw to Corey Collymore, and the West Indians in the crowd hoped for a quick finish. Far from it, as Kamran Akmal and Naved-ul-Hasan added 19 before Naved-ul-Hasan was forced to retire with a smashed hand. That gave the West Indies some hope, as they wrapped up the innings ten overs into the morning session, but those 38 runs conceded could have proven costly. The West Indian reply was anything but cautious, as Chris Gayle started the innings with smashing three fours off the injured Naved-ul-Hasan, who bowled six overs for fifty runs on the day – he was taken off after two overs for 22 with the new ball, then bowled another spell of four overs for 28. They raced to 48 for 0 before Gayle was tricked by an away-swinger from Abdul Razzaq, giving an outside edge to Kamran Akmal. Devon Smith and Ramnaresh Sarwan slowed down, scoring only 11 before Devon Smith was out to a grubber from Abdul Razzaq, so the innings was finely poised at 59 for 2. The new batsman Brian Lara used the time to get his eye in, knowing that the game had gone along a bit too quickly.
However, after lunch it was time to open things. Lara smashed runs at a run-a-ball, as the score went from 100 to 200 with 142 Pakistani deliveries, and although Pakistan wrested back some of the initiative with the wicket of Sarwan for 55, it was the West Indians' day. Shiv Chanderpaul hung on with Lara for the fourth wicket, as the pair added 70 in 23.4 overs – but a googly from Danish Kaneria resulted in a thin edge from Chanderpaul, who was out for 28. Thus, the West Indies went to stumps with 275 for 4, Lara unbeaten on 125. The West Indians continued on day 3, wishing to get up a big lead in fairly short time, and getting punished by Shabbir Ahmed – who ripped out Lara (for 153), Courtney Browne (for 0) and Daren Powell (for 14) – all caught behind. Wavell Hinds' fine 63, however, lifted the West Indians to 404 and a lead of 30, but Pakistan had done well to come back from 326 for 4. After the innings break, Pakistan started well, accumulating runs against unthreatening bowling from Powell and Best, but the untiring Collymore came back and had Yasir Hameed caught at slip for 26, although admittedly not with the best of deliveries. Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan continued, however, Malik notching up 64 runs before giving an inside edge off Collymore to Browne, and Collymore was also responsible for the third wicket, Asim Kamal missing a straight one for 0. Then, Courtney Browne dropped Inzamam early on – a mistake that would prove costly, as he went on to make 104 not out, in good partnerships with Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi, as Pakistan moved to 223 for 4 at stumps and wrested control of the game.
Afridi and Inzamam added a further 44 runs for the fifth wicket before Pakistan decided to implode. Tino Best, returning after an opening spell of 5–0–30–0, got Shahid Afridi with his first delivery of the day, edging to Dwayne Smith. In his next over, he served up a beautiful inswinger that had Abdul Razzaq beaten completely, and the ball trickled onto his stumps. And before anyone noticed what had happened, Pakistan had lost five wickets for 28 runs, and Best had figures of 6–1–9–4 in his spell. Inzamam and Danish Kaneria saw it through to lunch, but shortly afterwards, Collymore served up a short ball to the tail-ender Kaneria, who supplied with an edge through to a diving Chris Gayle. Pakistan were all out for 309, setting the West Indies a target of 280 in five sessions – meaning that the match would definitely give a result.
On a pitch that slowly deteriorated, the chase would be interesting, and it became even more interesting when Chris Gayle edged a short-ball from Shabbir Ahmed to Yasir Hameed at slips, resulting in 27 for 1. Sarwan and Devon Smith recuperated, taking the chase to 38 for 1, before clouds shaded the light from the sun and the batsmen had to go off for poor light. Coming back after a two-hour break, Devon Smith immediately started to hit runs, but Sarwan looked more uncertain as he was possibly caught behind off Kaneria. Three balls later, he became the first West Indies batsman out hit wicket in over two years since Carlton Baugh managed it against Australia, as he stepped backwards to turn a short ball from Kaneria to leg but stepped too far. Then, Pakistan wrested the initiative when Brian Lara – the man who had made 155 earlier on – gave an edge to a ball from Kaneria that spun into him, out for a duck and the West Indies were 48 for 3. The next over from Shabbir Ahmed, however, yielded eight runs before light was again offered to the batsmen. Coming back, West Indies longed for a big partnership, but it was not to be – Kaneria got his third wicket of the day, with a ball that hit low and was given lbw by the umpire, resulting in 56 for 4, with still 224 runs required. It looked hopeless – however, Wavell Hinds, with no respect for Kaneria's figures of 5–1–6–3, smashed him for two fours in an over, as the West Indies plundered him for eleven runs and made the match more interesting for the spectators at least. Hinds and Smith looked to see it through to stumps, adding 38 runs in a little over 12 overs, but when Devon Smith edged a quicker ball from Kaneria through to Karman Akmal for his eighth catch of the Test and Kaneria's fourth wicket of the innings, all looked truly lost. Wavell Hinds also departed before the day ended, edging a wide ball from Abdul Razzaq, and with the score 114 for 6 overnight, everyone just expected the West Indies to meekly roll over, and that they did – losing three wickets within the space of seven balls as Powell, Browne and King were out in succession. Four overs later, Tino Best tried a massive drive off Shabbir Ahmed, and was easily out as Shahid Afridi took the final catch of the game to secure a Pakistan 136-run win. Strangely enough, Pakistan only made use of three bowlers in the second innings, as Naved-ul-Hasan was injured and Shahid Afridi banned for stepping on the pitch. [5]
Brian Lara was named Man of the Series.
