The finish to the Multan Test appeared straight out of the bad old days when the Test would be called off half an hour after tea on the last day with one side leading by some 200 plus and a fourth innings remaining.

No sporting declaration. No last gasp chase. Nothing for the spectators and the global audience except more of the gumptious and agonizingly slow batting, except when Razzaq wanted to get to his hundred before Inzi called them back. He took a needless chance. Inzi was probably asleep.

It will be said that his defiant innings justified his selection but it simply shows that the choice was made with such a situation anticipated. That makes for a loser mentality. If Razzaq hadn't been playing, Akmal and the tail would in all probability have done the needful on such a track and with an hour left in the Windies tailwind after lunch.

Anyways, the match was saved for Pakistan by the West Indies themselves. Too many catches were dropped and there was no justice for Corey Collymore with edges, misses and appeals that went unpicked and unendorsed.

But that shouldn't take anything away from Yousuf's supreme effort on the last day. He built on those chances while the bowlers were still hungry and pegging away at him. He matched Lara in grace and sublimity though not aggression. Like the faith that lives in him, he was calm and patient, even after he was given leases of life.

I had written in my earlier columns during the first Test that Yousuf is in sight of a world record in this series and indeed he is 148 runs from breaking Sir Vivian Richards' 1710. Lots of runs for any batsman to score in the last Test but on present touch, he can almost smell them all.

He has already become the batsman with the second highest Test aggregate in a calendar year, going past Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting. He now has 1562 but has already equalled Richards' and Aravinda De Silva's record of 7 Test hundreds in a calendar year.

One record that he has broken in this Test is the batsman most dismissed in the 190s in Test cricket. He's gone through this travail thrice; no batsman in Test history has experienced it more than twice. To refine it all his three scores have come in the same calendar year.

Interestingly Younis has done it twice this calendar year, with a Test to go.

But the man who must be cursing his luck the most is surely Shivnarine Chanderpaul. He must already have dreamed of a full crowd somewhere in Trinidad or Lord's for such an occasion. Instead he got a sleepy town and a ground in the wilderness with a sprinkling of a crowd, most of them from security.

He led the side in on opening day and couldn't have asked for a better present than what the curator gave him. But he spoilt his own party with an atrocious shot when only 14 and then dropped Yousuf. He spent just about the whole Test sweating in the field or sleeping on the sofa. You couldn’t dread a more empty centennial.

Both teams now travel to Karachi with different concerns. Pakistan is worried that their trump card is being trumped but analysis will show that Kaneria to all others is still a mystery. On a Karachi pitch and after the tutorial at Multan, Danish is likely to get more help from the pitch and I'm sure Bob Woolmer will take him aside and prepare him better.

Knowing Lara his appetite is voratious for hundreds and he is seeking to equal Sachin Tendulkar's record of 35 Test hundreds. For now Lara has already hit hundreds in four successive Tests against Pakistan and I wonder if he is the first batsman ever to do this against Pakistan. Maybe the first captain to achieve this against us….

He comes south with questions about his second line attack after Taylor and Collymore. Powell wasn’t yet there and Dave lost it at Multan on a pitch which was giving Gayle some help. Omari Banks may be in and Fidel Edwards likely to get a return ticket as well.

The big question, however, will be whether Sarwan's penance is over.