DUBAI: Leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo took a career-best eight-wicket haul to help West Indies bowl out Pakistan for 123 in their second innings on the fourth day of the first Test in Dubai on Sunday.

Bishoo returned with figures of 8-49 in 13.5 overs as Pakistan batting crumbled in dramatic collapse after being 77-2 at one stage. However, despite the batting debacle, Pakistan set West Indies a challenging target of 346 on a wearing Dubai International Cricket Stadium pitch in the day-night match.

Bishoo’s figures are the second best in West Indies-Pakistan Tests. Fast bowler Colin Croft grabbed 8-29 in only his second international at Port of Spain in 1977.

Earlier it was Pakistani leg-spinner Yasir Shah who became the second joint-fastest bowler to take 100 wickets in Test cricket during his 5-121 which bundled West Indies out for 357 in their first innings.

Pakistan, who scored 579-3 declared in their first innings, did not enforce the follow-on despite West Indies coming up 23 runs short of the follow-on target of 380.

Pakistan went to the dinner break at 121-8 but immediately lost Sarfraz Ahmed (15) on resumption in search of quick runs to effect a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

With the rough marks on the pitch helping spinners, Bishoo triggered a middle-order collapse after Pakistan had lost opener Azhar Ali (two) and Asad Shafiq (five) just before tea.

Bishoo, who had trapped Asad leg-before ahead of tea, then came into his own, dismissing Babar Azam (21), Sami Aslam (44), Misbah-ul-Haq (15), Mohammad Nawaz (0) and Wahab Riaz (five) in the space of 40 balls for 21 runs.

Bishoo’s previous best bowling was 6-80 against Australia at Dominica last year.

Azhar, who scored a career best 302 in the first innings, was lucky to avoid a caught behind decision off fast bowler Shannon Gabriel but was trapped leg-before the very next ball.

The early part of day four belonged to Yasir who wrapped up the West Indies innings in quick time and also reached a milestone.

England’s right-arm medium-pacer George Lohmann reached 100 Test wickets in just 16 Test matches in 1896, which still is a world record in Test cricket’s 140-year history.

Australia’s Charlie Turner and Clarrie Grimmett, and England’s Sydney Barnes each got to the milestone in their 17th Test.

Yasir, who made his debut at the same venue in October 2014, bettered off-spinner Saeed Ajmal who held the Pakistani record of fastest to 100 Tests wickets in 19 matches.

West Indies’s overnight batsmen Shane Dowrich (32) and Jason Holder (20) both fell to Yasir while Bishoo (17) fell to Nawaz as West Indies failed to delay the inevitable.

Nawaz finished with 2-30 on debut and Wahab Riaz took 2-65.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2016