Seales takes 5 wickets as West Indies beat Pakistan by 90 runs in 1st Test
West Indies completed a 90-run win in the first cricket Test after Pakistan captain Babar Azam made an unbeaten 58 and shared a rearguard stand of 49 with No. 11 Mohammad Abbas to delay the end.
After being set 211 to win when West Indies’ second innings ended at 181, Pakistan slumped to 71-9 Tuesday in the face of accurate bowling from Jayden Seales (5-20).
Babar finally found a stoic partner in Abbas and the last pair held out for 12 overs to frustrate the hosts. Abbas was the last batter out for 23 shortly after the tea interval on Day 4 when Pakistan was 120. Babar’s 32nd test half-century stood out in stark relief against an indisciplined Pakistan batting effort. When he reached his 50 from 81 balls, Pakistan was 88-9 and the rest of its batters had contributed only 38 runs.
“We played good cricket in the last few days but today we were not up to the mark as a batting unit,” Babar said.
“We lost back-to-back wickets. We will look to make sure it doesn’t happen in the next matches.”
The second match in the two-Test series starts Sunday.
Pakistan’s second-innings batting collapse followed the template of its first innings in which it reached 244-4 with a century by Shan Masood then lost its next six wickets for 38 runs to be all out for 282, conceding a 29-run first-innings lead. West Indies made 311 batting first.
In two Pakistan innings, Masood’s was the only century and there were half-centuries by Imam-ul-Haq, who made 63 in the first innings, and Babar. Otherwise, only six Pakistan batters reached double figures. Abbas’ 23 was the joint fourth-highest score by a Pakistan batter.
Masood sustained a hand injury while batting in the first innings and was forced to drop from No. 3 to No. 8 in the order Tuesday, which was a major setback for Pakistan. West Indies resumed Tuesday at 126-7, with a lead of 155 runs. Shamar Joseph went from 22 to 38 and Kemar Roach from 5 to 18 as West Indies pushed its lead beyond 200 runs.
That proved more than adequate as Pakistan lost Imam-ul-Haq (3) in the third over to set the visitors’ second collapse of the match in motion.
Babar provided solidity at one end but, of Pakistan’s top six batters, only Mohammad Rizwan with 11 reached double figures. Taking out Babar and Abbas, the Pakistan scoreboard read 3, 3, 0, 11, 0, 2, 3, 4 and 0.
Pakistan folded in the face of Seales’ early assault and contributions of 2-27 from Roach and 2-12 from Justin Greaves. Seales returned to make the final breakthrough, trapping Abbas lbw in the 41st over to finish with his fifth five-wicket haul in tests.
Greaves, who took 5-27 in Pakistan’s first innings, was voted player of the match.
“We came in and tried to be just as disciplined as possible,” Greaves said.
“I mimicked Mohammad Abbas’ fuller lengths when he bowled against us in the first and second innings and it pretty much worked out for us.” Abbas had returns of 3-63 and 5-22 for Pakistan.
