By Brian Thomas
Nothing comes easy in international cricket as West indies on day 5 today, will have to bat out of their skins to break the 20-year hoodoo, that has eluded them for 2 decades of a series win against the Pakistanis in a series win in Test Cricket.
Coming into Sabina Park park on day 4 was greeted with bright sunshine, but darkness in the dressing room in terms of 39 for 3 wickets in reply to Pakistan’s 302 for 9 Wickets declared, the hosts had plenty on their plates to worry about.
As predicted, night watchman Alzari Joseph, had to play at a Shaheen Afridi out swing early in the day, to be caught by Babar Azam for 4 runs and the 4th Caribbean wicket fell with the score on 45.
Nkrumar Bonner and Jemain Blackwood applied themselves to do a repair job against some accurate bowling by the Pakistani seamers in stiching a 60 run partnership for the 5th wicket, to bring some sort of sanity into their batting.
Come the drinks break, and the flood gates opened with the score on 105 for 4 wickets, and the follow-on too being taken care of. The resilient Nkrumar Bonner became a scalp of Mohd Abbas for 37 , and Jermain Blackwood a victim Shaheen Afridi for 33, both undone by the late swing, with Kyle Mayers obliging the Pakistanis with a golden duck, to another delivery that took the edge and the hosts slumped to 109 for 7 wickets in the blink of an eyelid.
Wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva could not assist the flock through the desert this time, as he lost an LBW review stuck plum in front off a Mohd Abbas inswinger and was correctly adjudicated out for a single digit of 8 runs and the West Indies looked down the barrel on 116 runs for 8 wickets.
Jayson Holder and Kemer Roach , the latter being the first Test hero took West Indies to the lunch table on 123 for 8 wickets with grim West Indian faces, whilst the opposition achieved their objective of claiming 5 overnight scalps for 84 runs.
The last 2 wickets fell for 27 runs in the second session and the hosts gazed at a scoreboard that read West Indies all out: 150. Shaheen Afridi changed into his tracksuit in the dressing room pleased with his efforts 6 wickets for 51 runs, a well-deserved five-fours, whilst his partner with the cherry Mohd Abbas all smiles with 3 for 44.
Deficit: 152 , and that’s a lot of runs on the Sabina Pitch on day 4. Pakistan goes into bat for the second innings with a 50 over ODI mindset and makes 176 runs for 6 Wickets declared in just 27.2 overs, and sets the hosts a Herculean task of 328, to save or win the game and break the 2-decade hoodoo.
What an equation, what an interesting day in the horizon for day 5, as West Indies huffed and puffed to end the day on 49 runs for 1 wicket in 19 painstaking overs.
Same script different page night watchman Alzari Joseph is back at the wickets for the second time in the day but this time he has joined his skipper, Kraigg Braithwaite who remains unbeaten on 17. Kiren Powel is back in the hutch run out for 23 in a bazaar fashion, schoolboy stuff not grounding his bat when taking his second run. Appalling to state the least, from a West Indian perspective as they now trail by 279 runs with 9 Wickets in hand.
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