MULTAN: Sajid Khan and Abrar Ahmed led the charge for Pakistan, bundling out West Indies for 123 to win the first Test in Multan by 127 runs on the third day as spinners ruled the roost.
It was the shortest completed men’s Test match in Pakistan with 40 wickets falling in 1064 balls.
Spinners took 16 wickets on Sunday as Jomel Warrican’s seven-wicket haul restricted Pakistan’s second innings to 157, setting a target of 251 for West Indies, who failed to get a partnership going on the turn-heavy track.
“It’s hard out there. Batting was hard,” Pakistan captain Shan Masood said. “In the second innings, we folded cheaply. There are improvements to be made. When you win, you can go on a happy ride and be happy. But we can’t do that.”
Pakistan, who had a 93-run lead after the first innings, started from an overnight score of 109-3, but Warrican struck early, dismissing Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan in his successive overs.
Warrican’s destructive spell continued with Kamran Ghulam (27) getting caught behind soon after and, with Salman Ali Agha (14) becoming Gudakesh Motie’s solitary wicket of the innings, the hosts collapsed, having lost seven wickets in 48 runs.
“We’ll take a look at how Warrican bowled. As spinners we should take a look at that. He was bringing the batters forward,” West Indies captain Kraigg Braithwaite said.
Braithwaite (12) was the first to fall when the visitors began the chase as he tried to hit Sajid for a six but ended up finding Khurram Shahzad at deep mid-wicket.
Keacy Carty (6) tried to sweep Sajid, but the ball nicked his glove and was caught by wicket-keeper Rizwan. Sajid bamboozled Kavem Hodge (0) and Mikyle Louis (13) soon after, bowling them out with sharp turns as West Indies fell to 37-4.
Alick Athanaze (55) put up a fight, scoring quick runs to put the pressure back on the bowlers. But Abrar kept knocking batters down at the other end, as Tevin Imlach (14) and Kevin Sinclair (10) fell before they could fully settle down.
Athanaze was finally trapped leg before wicket by Sajid, and a defiant Warrican was the last to fall as he was bowled out for a duck trying to reverse sweep Abrar.
“The wicket had a lot of turn and bounce... it was our strategy to throttle the runs. If we could do that, wickets would come automatically,” said Sajid.
He took nine wickets in the Test, including five in the second innings in a player-of-the-match performance.
Pakistan have now won three home Tests in a row, having beaten England twice to win their three-match series 2-1 in October.
Braithwaite said the visitors needed to be brave going into the second and final Test of the series, which begins at the same venue on Jan. 25.
“It’s important to be positive on these types of pitches,” he said. “We should show intent ... if we can bring it together batting and bowling-wise we can come out on top.”
Meanwhile, Shan defended Pakistan’s formula of using spin-friendly pitches to win home Test matches.
“If we want to be a top side in the World Test Championship then we have to sacrifice some things, like we did with the fast bowling in this Test,” said the Pakistan skipper.
Pakistan made drastic changes after going winless in 11 home Tests since 2021, using industrial fans and patio heaters to dry the Multan pitch against England last year.
Sajid and left-arm spinner Noman Ali took 39 of the 40 wickets to give Pakistan a come-from-behind series win against England, repeating the same ploy against the West Indies.
Shans’s counterpart Brathwaite had no issue with it.
“They’re at home so they got their decision how they want the pitch to behave,” said Brathwaite. “It was a difficult pitch to bat on for sure.
“We expect the same type of pitch in the second Test so we got to come better with bravery and belief.”
SCOREBOARD
PAKISTAN (1st Innings) 230
WEST INDIES (1st Innings) 137
PAKISTAN (2nd Innings, overnight 109-3):
Shan Masood run out 52
Muhammad Huraira lbw Warrican 29
Babar Azam lbw Warrican 5
Kamran Ghulam c Imlach b Warrican 27
Saud Shakeel c Greaves b Warrican 2
Muhammad Rizwan c Hodge b Warrican 2
Salman Ali Agha c Louis b Motie 14
Noman Ali lbw b Warrican 9
Sajid Khan c Brathwaite b Warrican 5
Abrar Ahmed not out 0
EXTRAS (B-11, NB-1) 12
TOTAL (all out, 46.4 overs) 157
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-67 (Huraira), 2-89 (Babar), 3-106 (Shan), 4-109 (Saud), 5-113 (Rizwan), 6-132 (Kamran), 7-142 (Noman), 8-150 (Sajid), 9-154 (Khurram)
BOWLING: Motie 11.4-0-48-1, Seales 10-0-37-0, Sinclair 5-1-16-0 (1nb), Warrican 18-3-32-7, Hodge 2-0-13-0
WEST INDIES (2nd Innings):
K. Brathwaite c Khurram b Sajid 12
M. Louis b Sajid 13
K. Carty c Rizwan b Sajid 6
K. Hodge b Sajid 0
A. Athanaze lbw b Sajid 55
J. Greaves lbw Noman 9
T. Imlach c Rizwan b Abrar 14
K. Sinclair c Agha b Abrar 10
G. Motie c Agha b Abrar 0
J. Warrican b Abrar 0
J. Seales not out 0
EXTRAS (B-1, LB-3) 4
TOTAL (all out, 36.3 overs) 123
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16 (Brathwaite), 2-26 (Carty), 3-32 (Hodge), 4-37 (Louis), 5-54 (Greaves), 6-95 (Imlach), 7-123 (Sinclair), 8-123 (Motie), 9-123 (Athanaze), 10-123 (Warrican)
BOWLING: Sajid 15-3-50-5, Abrar 11.3-2-27-4, Noman 10-1-42-1
RESULT: Pakistan won by 127 runs.
PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Sajid Khan
Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2025