Generous West Indies let Pakistan square Test series

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

I agree with Ian Bishop, a West Indian speedster of yesteryears, that the hosts let slip a Test series against Pakistan they could have won and they will be disappointed with the final result.

Yet again it was the generosity of the West Indians that allowed Pakistan's to level the two-Test series. The hosts were guilty of taking their rivals casually and not giving the kind of performance they were capable of.

As much as the West Indian cricketers, their administrators also played a definite role by providing Pakistan the red carpet. When even a kid knew that the Pakistan batsmen were vulnerable to swing and pace there was absolutely no sense in preparing tracks that suited spinners.

The West Indians proved very generous hosts indeed by letting Pakistan play both the Tests on slow pitches to surrender the home advantage. We came across the kind of pitches in the Caribbean that the Pakistani cricketers love at home.

Pakistan's slow bowlers picked up as many as 32 of the 40 available wickets and they themselves were surprised by the amount of turn on offer at the two venues. It certainly was a pleasant surprise for the spinning duo of Saeed Ajmal and Abdul Rahman who were also assisted by part-timer Mohammad Hafeez.

"We have been surprised by the bounce and the spin that we have gotten from the pitches. This is why we are very happy. Spinners are happy when they get pitches that turn, but to also get the bounce is good, and the West Indies have struggled against the spin and the bounce. It would not be a bad idea to dig up this pitch, and carry it around with me, so that I can get plenty of wickets," an ecstatic Abdul Rahman observed.

Equally happy were the Pakistani batsmen like Taufiq Umar and Misbah-ul-Haq, who notched up centuries on the docile pitch that blunted the West Indian fast bowlers.

The home side had to pay very heavy price for having let the Pakistan tail-enders wag in the first innings. The last wicket stand between Saeed Ajmal and Tanvir Ahmed turned the tide decisively and Pakistan won the match by 196 runs after being in doldrums on the opening day.

No matter what the West Indian skipper, Darren Sammy, had to say in the post-match media briefing not many people were inclined to agree with him when he spoke about his team having taken plenty of positives out of the series.

It became a forgettable series for them in the end. They squandered golden opportunity to win a Test series for the first time in more than two years. All they needed was to exert some more pressure on the visitors which they didn’t do.

The young West Indian brigade had the momentum coming into the second Test and they had Pakistan on the run in the first innings but the last-wicket stand turned it around.

The lady luck smiled on Misbah-ul-Haq and his boys who made the most of the opportunities offered to them. They were more than happy to have squared the Test series, after pocketing the ODI series, with all those issues regarding selection and management.

Pace, not spin, rattles Pakistan batsmen once more

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

No matter how much purchase the pitch was offering to the debutant West Indian leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo in the fourth innings of the first Test against Pakistan at the Providence Stadium in Guyana it was the pace that had to make to difference and so it.

Bishoo could have been a potential match-winner against any other side in the given circumstances but it was extremely unlikely for him to spin Pakistan out even though the batting was brittle and lacked experience or class.

Probably the weakest of all the Pakistani teams to have embarked on a tour of the Caribbean, Misbah-ul-Haq and his teammates must have been hoping for some more overs from Bishoo to take the fight to the West Indian camp.

The target of 219 in the low-scoring game was always going to be a challenging proposition with the uneven bounce of the track. It may have surprised a few self-proclaimed experts but all the 10 wickets were shared by the fast bowlers and the much talked about Bishoo went wicket-less even after 21 overs.

In fact the complete failure of Bishoo in the second innings must have been a cause of concern for the skipper Darren Sammy, who himself took the centre stage when it mattered most. It was his spell that sealed the fate of the match.

The West Indians demonstrated the rare self-belief and attacked their opponents with purpose, unlike the first three One-day Internationals in which they were found guilty of having lost it mentally.

Sammy returned a five-wicket haul to bowl his side to first Test victory for more than a year. The West Indies had not tasted a Test win after that sensational spell from Jerone Taylor had blown England away early last year.

“We as a team needed this performance. Lately, things hadn't been going well but I had the belief, this team had the belief," Sammy observed after grabbing Man of the Match award, which he narrowly snatched from teammate Ravi Rampaul.

"Rampaul looks fit and has worked really hard with Ottis Gibson. It was a tough decision to pick between him and Fidel Edwards," Sammy added.

"It was a difficult pitch. We found ourselves not playing the spin too well. But I commend the guys for the effort. They batted out time and put in a total which in the end was enough to get the victory,” he acknowledged.

Pakistan’s captain Misbah, who led the fightback in the company of Asad Shafiq and Umar Akmal, was sporting enough to concede that the better team had won.

“To lose this Test is disappointing, they played better cricket and bowled disciplined lines," he stated.

“We dropped so many catches and gave away so many runs to the lower order. We were a little disappointing from the batting point of view also. We fought well on the third day to recover after losing early wickets but most of our guys got out to good balls," Misbah believed.

West Indian mismanagement gifts Pakistan ODI series

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The West Indians, unlike the past, proved to be very generous hosts. There was a time, not many decades ago, when the visiting teams used to be fearful of going to the Caribbean for a number of reasons. Not only the hosts used to be a dangerous side but the entire environment over there was intimidating enough to keep the visitors under pressure nearly all the time.

Pakistan have had successful tours of the West Indies even when playing in the Caribbean was the most challenging proposition. The teams led by Mushtaq Mohammad in 1976-77 and the one captained by Imran Khan in 1988-89 had overcome the pressures with true grit and resilience.

It’s quite amazing, however, how this inexperienced Pakistan outfit, with the enigmatic Shahid Afridi at the helm of the affairs, managed to win the series of five One-day Internationals in the West Indies.

In fact there must have been occasions when they must have even fancied their chances of whitewashing the hosts if they continued to take things so lightly. It was incredible how the West Indian Cricket Board was handling matters. They appeared oblivious of the fact that they had a duty to perform. I don’t think they have the license to do anything thing they like at the expense of the sport.

Cricket has been on the decline in the Caribbean for a long time but it will soon become a dead sport over there if their administrators continue having fun at the top. Whatever the reasons, wasn’t it a pity that the top West Indian stars were stealing the limelight in the Indian Premier League and the young ones with limited talents and experience were biting the dust back home.

Experimenting with youth at home is not a crime but discarding the seasoned campaigners for no rhyme or reason is criminal. You just cannot drop your experienced fellows on the basis an odd bad performance. Their reputation is not built overnight. They take years to mature. Throwing them out when they still have plenty to offer and their replacements are not there has to be branded as poor management.

Shahid Afridi and his boys must have been pleasantly surprised to find that the hosts would prove so soft. The West Indians, with meager resources at their disposal, were guilty of not applying themselves and the series was decided after the first three games.

The manner in which the West Indian batsmen handled the Pakistan spinners showed they were not prepared for international cricket yet. The home bowlers were short of confidence and experience as well which allowed the series to be settled so quickly.

As it turned out in the last two games, the West Indians could have kept the series alive much longer had they displayed some belief in the first three encounters in which they had batted very poorly indeed.

The West Indies salvaged some pride by winning the last two games to make it 2-3 which also made them realize that they could have pocketed the series quite comfortably if they showed little more discipline and firepower.