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| November 15, 2006 | Wednesday | Shawwal 22, 1427 |
First Test at Lahore: Ton-up Lara upstaged by Umar Gul as Pakistan crush West Indies
LAHORE, Nov 14: Magnificent bowling by pacemen Umar Gul and Shahid Nazir inspired Pakistan to a crushing nine-wicket victory over the West Indies in the first Test after a brilliant century from skipper Brian Lara had almost threatened a revival for the tourists at the Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday.
Umar and Shahid combined magnificently to share 15 wickets between them to dismiss the West Indies for 206 and 291 in the two innings of Test. Requiring just 13 for victory, Pakistan lost Mohammad Hafeez before registering their 14th win over the West Indies in 42 Tests with a day to spare.
Despite Lara’s 122 – his 33rd three-figure knock in 129 Tests – and a dogged 81 from Shivnarine Chanderpaul, West Indies trailing by 285 on the first innings capitulated for 291 in their second outing after resuming the fourth day at 74 for three.
Umar, deservingly named Man-of-the-Match for his haul of nine for 164 in the game, ended up with four for 99 in the second innings while Shahid claimed three wickets in each innings.
The sustained efforts put in by both Umar and Shahid was particularly praiseworthy since there was nothing in the pitch to assist them on Tuesday when the conditions were just perfect for batting as the sun shone throughout the day.
West Indies desperately wanted Lara, who resumed at his overnight score of 28, to bat throughout the day and to give them an outside chance of extending the game into the final day.
Lara did come good, scoring a masterly 122, but his dismissal after five hours of resolute application triggered a familiar collapse which saw West Indies losing six wickets for 53 runs, three of them to the second new ball.
Until that period the captain had led a rearguard action with Chanderpaul during a resilient fifth-wicket partnership of 137 on either side of lunch after nightwatchman Fidel Edwards had been neatly taken in the slips by Younis Khan.
Lara, who top-scored on the first day with 61, treated the sparse crowd to sumptuous stroke-play as he struck 19 boundaries in his fine knock. His patent stand-and-deliver drives through the offside off faster bowlers sent the crowd into rapturous applause and when spinners came on, Lara danced down the pitch to hit them over the top with consummate ease.
But on the way to his century Lara was fortunate enough to survive a vociferous leg-before shout when Shoaib Malik, bowling round the wicket, outfoxed him with a straighter one but Sri Lanka umpire Asoka de Silva for once ruled in favour of the West Indian.
But Hafeez, who like Shoaib bowls off-spin, finally scalped the great man with a well-disguised straight ball while bowling from the College End.
Lara’s first century in this country was his third against Pakistan with all of them coming in successive Tests. He made 120 at Bridgetown and 153 at Kingston in the drawn series last year.
Lara, Test cricket’s highest run-getter with an aggregate of 11,688 runs, attained another milestone by pushing former Australian captain Steve Waugh (32) into fourth place to stand behind Sachin Tendulkar (35) and Sunil Gavaskar (34) among the list of century-makers.
Once Lara had gone, Pakistan knew the rest would just be a formality and immediately went for the kill.
Dwayne Bravo fell to Umar Gul for two before the trigger-happy de Silva, who had a forgetful Test match, couldn’t resist the temptation of raising his index finger at long last. Predictably, he rubbed more salt into West Indian wounds when Denesh Ramdin was declared ‘caught’ at short leg off leg-spinner Danish Kaneria; replays confirmed that the ball had only come off the batsman’s front pad.
Chanderpaul, who needed medical attention on quite a few occasions from the team physio due to dehydration and cramps, carried on manfully for 262 minutes until Mohammad Yousuf grabbed a top-edge from his bat. The Guyanese left-hander’s 178-ball knock was studded with eight fours.
Shahid had Dave Mohammed caught at mid-on before Umar Gul terminated the innings as Jerome Taylor edged one to wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal.
For Inzamam-ul-Haq and his team it was a satisfying result in the wake of recent problems, both on and off the pitch. It was Pakistan’s 12th victory in 38 Tests at the Gaddafi Stadium.
West Indies, who have now been defeated 16 times in 23 Tests since May 2004, must rethink their strategy to make a comeback in the three-match series. The tourists clearly misread the overcast conditions when Lara chose to bat first and saw his side go down for 206 on the fateful opening day.
The second Test starts in Multan from Sunday while the last is scheduled for Karachi from Nov 27.
| Scoreboard | |
| WEST INDIES 1st innings 206 (B.C. Lara 61; Umar Gul 5-65) | |
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PAKISTAN 1st innings 485 (Mohammad Yousuf 192, Kamran Akmal 78;
J. Taylor 4-115) |
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| WEST INDIES 2nd innings (overnight 74-3) | |
| C.H. Gayle c Akmal b Gul | 11 |
| D. Ganga run out | 5 |
| R.R Sarwan lbw b Gul | 23 |
| B.C Lara lbw b Hafeez | 122 |
| F.H Edwards c Younis b Nazir | 10 |
| S. Chanderpaul c Yousuf b Nazir | 81 |
| D.J Bravo lbw b Gul | 2 |
| D. Ramdin c Farhat b Kaneria | 1 |
| D. Mohammed c Razzaq b Nazir | 15 |
| J.E Taylor c Akmal b Gul | 8 |
| C.D. Collymore not out | 1 |
| EXTRAS: (LB-7, NB-5) | 12 |
| TOTAL: (all out, 94 overs) | 291 |
| FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16, 2-20, 3-56, 4-101, 5-238, 6-248, 7-251, 8-278, 9-288. | |
| BOWLING: Umar Gul 29-6-99-4, Shahid Nazir 20-8-63-3, Abdul Razzaq 7-2-19-0, Danish Kaneria 29-6-78-1, Shoaib Malik 5-1-14-0, Mohammad Hafeez 4-0-11-1 | |
| PAKISTAN 2nd innings | |
| Mohammad Hafeez lbw b Collymore | 1 |
| Imran Farhat not out | 8 |
| Younis Khan not out | 0 |
| EXTRAS: (LB-4) | 4 |
| Total (for 1 wkt, 5.1 overs) | 13 |
| FALL OF WICKETS: 1-2 | |
| BOWLING: Collymore 3-2-2-1; Edwards 2.1-1-7-0 | |
| UMPIRES: Simon Taufel (Aus); Asoka de Silva (Sri Lanka) | |
| TV UMPIRE: Nadeem Ghouri (PAK) | |
| MATCH REFEREE: Roshan Mahanama (SRI) | |
| Result: Pakistan won by 9 wickets | |
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