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Marlon Samuels walks in to a pressure situation

16.1
Saeed Ajmal to Sarwan, OUT, Sarwan is gone! excellent work from Mohammad Salman, flighted delivery lured him out of his crease, but it dipped on him, and he got an inside edge on to pad that then squeezed past the stumps, Salman was alert and got down, stopped the ball from going between his legs, and removed the bails catching Sarwan short of his ground.

oh boy.
FM
And that will be tea on an intriguing day of Test cricket.

Mark Kidger: "This series is a fabulous advertisment for Test cricket. They might not be the best sides in the world, but they are serving up a classic. Out of sentiment I'd like to see the West Indies seal it to help keep cricket alive in the Caribbean: Pakistan will come again, they have so much talent to pick from."

30.3
Mohammad Hafeez to Bravo, OUT, Mohammad Hafeez strikes, if there is no Devon Smith, he takes out Darren Bravo, who had survived for a long time against Saeed Ajmal, more effort on the ball, more grip, more turn, more bounce, and a surprised Bravo edges it a nice height for Shafiq to accept the simple catch at second slip.

i hope they do not lose any more wikets after tea.

courtesy of cricinfo.
FM
quote:
Originally posted by IK:
Mohammad Hafeez to Nash, OUT, that will do, West Indies cannot play Mohammad Hafeez, goes back to a length delivery on off stump, grip, turn and bounce, too much for Nash, Misbah gobbles up the juicy dolly at slip

oh god no.


IK it is time like this that the West Indies miss the competence of Shiv Chanderpaul who saved the day in the first test, but so little has been said of his effort.

Lets hope that someone stands up and fight.

Pakistan 272

West Indies 104/5

West Indies trail by 168 runs with 5 wickets remaining in the 1st innings

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FM
Pakistan tour of West Indies, 2nd Test: West Indies v Pakistan at Basseterre, May 20-24, 2011

Pakistan 272 & 315/4

West Indies 223

Pakistan lead by 364 runs with 6 wickets remaining

Day 4 - Session 1

Maybe after lunch the Pakistani's may bat for another hour or so taking their score to 425 or so then declared, leaving the WI get get like about 425 - 430 to win.

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FM
Tanvir Ahmed to Brathwaite, OUT, Tanvir goes screaming across towards covers, he has shattered the stumps of young Brathwaite, who was hanging deep in the crease too often

KC Brathwaite b Tanvir Ahmed 0

Pakistan 272 & 377/6d

West Indies 223 & 5/1

West Indies require another 422 runs with 9 wickets remaining

Day 4 - Session 2

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FM
People wake up to reality. WI cricket is done, dead and buried some 15+ years ago. Stop kidding yourself that the team will come back, that they will rebuild, rebuild with who, them players that they have playing these days, they are not committed to the game and they lack any proper talent.

So folks, stop fooling yourself and start accepting the fact, WI as a great cricket team is dead. Put us with the likes of Bangladesh, Ireland and Zimbabwe and the other lower teams.
Amral
not goat mouth Kenny, but gut feeling. Bro when I was back home, I will stay up late in the night listening to matches with the WI playing in Australia and England, other times, I use to hide my lil transistor radio in my pocket and the ear phone hide carefully listening to matches when I am in school. I am a die hard fan like many here, but over the years I have learnt to stop living the dream and face reality.
It has now to do with the talent and the desire our young guys back home have for the game, that is now gone, they may just be capable of playing 1st class matches and Shell Shield games now. We are no longer capable of competing at the international level.
Amral
West Indies v Pakistan, 2nd Test, St Kitts, 4th day

Misbah, bowlers put Pakistan on top
The Bulletin by Osman Samiuddin

May 23, 2011

West Indies 223 and 130 for 5 (Bravo 50, Rehman 3-26) need 297 runs to beat Pakistan 272 and 377 for 6 dec (Umar 135, Misbah 102*)


Having scored only two Test hundreds since January 2010, Pakistan scored two in one innings in setting themselves up perfectly for a series-levelling win in the second Test against West Indies in Basseterre. Taufeeq Umar's fifth Test hundred - nearly eight years after his last - and Misbah-ul-Haq's third set a dispirited West Indies 427 to win.

It was never remotely realistic and by the close Abdur Rehman had depleted spirits further with a relentless spell. Rehman took three wickets to leave West Indies down, almost out at 130 for 5; Darren Bravo's 50 was solitary defiance.

Pakistan were formidably placed overnight for events of today to be no great surprise. Attention as the day began was on Umar and the three runs he needed to reach his hundred. It took him three overs to get his first run and not until the seventh over of the morning did he get there, with a little dink to square leg.

There wasn't much else to note - he scored eight runs in the first hour - though this meant, interestingly, that three of Pakistan's last four Test hundreds had now been made by left-hand openers (Imran Farhat and Salman Butt the others).

Misbah was altogether more interesting, though at times that was a relative observation. His first hundred since becoming Test captain - he now averages 90 in six Tests as leader - was in his typical all-or-nothing fashion. There were stretches of no intent and much of that soul-destroying forward defensive, mixed with bouts of smart boundary-hitting.

He'd begun the morning with a nice drive, before he suddenly leapt on Darren Sammy, in realization that he isn't half as dangerous as Pakistan make him look. In one over he twice clipped him through midwicket before gliding him past slips.

Then, nothing until after morning drinks when a swept triptych against Devendra Bishoo brought him the fifty; first he swept him conventionally, then slog-swept, both for boundaries before ending with a reverse-swept single. That signalled the assault. A little later came the Misbah signature, the one-kneed loft to long-on for six and Bishoo was regularly punished thereafter as Pakistan pillaged 63 runs in the 10 overs to lunch.

Umar ran himself out just before lunch, ending a 129-run stand but Umar Akmal took over after as Pakistan upped the pace in search of the declaration. He launched a couple of sixes while Misbah worked his way steadily to the landmark. Akmal fell as did Mohammad Salman, but Misbah brought up the hundred with an edged boundary.

Immediately he declared, 40 minutes into the afternoon session. Until then, the West Indies stood not so much in the way of Pakistan as opponents, as bemused, helpless bystanders. What they were doing on the field in the morning for example, nobody knows. They came out with the intensity of a corpse, opening with Ravi Rampaul and Sammy and choosing not to take a new ball until they had to when a 110-over-old ball fell apart and no replacement could be found; did they not know the fragility of Pakistan's batting?

From the time the first ball was bowled, they appeared beaten, waiting, hoping for a declaration. When it came, they realized it wasn't really what they wanted. An excellent opening spell from Tanvir Ahmed saw Kraigg Brathwaite dismissed by a big, fizzing inswinger but the game was simply waiting for Pakistan's spinners.

And they do bring terrific variety. Rehman is like a drone, at you without rest; at one point after tea, he bowled five maidens in six overs. Saeed Ajmal is more given to moods and smiles and winks, chancing it to get wickets. Mohammad Hafeez is a bit of both, able to restrict, also of late able to attack.

All three have contributed and it was Rehman's turn today. Getting fair turn and big bounce, he ripped out Lendl Simmons, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels in an 11-over stretch from tea till drinks.

Bravo showed the first real signs of life in the hosts across an afternoon of confident work. Just before tea, two sixes off Rehman provided moments of rare, frozen beauty. The going after tea was sedate, though not entirely uncomfortable. A couple of cuts, in front of and behind square, confirmed the elegance of his game and a fourth fifty near the close was well-deserved.

A change of pace at the death brought his downfall, however, and the day was fully Pakistan's.

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FM
Pakistan tour of West Indies, 2nd Test: West Indies v Pakistan at Basseterre, May 20-24, 2011

Seems now like it is a matter of formality, as the West Indies faces an almost impossible task of trying to get 257 runs with 3 wickets intact.

But still cricket as a game of great uncertainties, the odds are not there, for something out of the realm of impossibilities.

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FM

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