KINGSTON: A three-wicket opening burst by Shaheen Shah Afridi reduced the West Indies to 38 for three at lunch in pursuit of a victory target of 168 against Pakistan as eight wickets tumbled on the fourth morning of the first Test at Sabina Park on Sunday.
After Jayden Seales took the last three wickets of the tourists’ second innings to complete a first five-wicket haul in his young Test career, Shaheen plowed through the first three of the home side’s top order.
Roston Chase and Jermaine Blackwood then counter-punched to take their team to 38 for three at the lunch interval.
Everything points to the afternoon session being the decisive period when the West Indies will be hoping they have enough depth in their batting to take them across the line.
Pakistan will want to believe the interval is enough time for Shaheen to re-energize and come charging in again immediately upon the resumption of play as the left-armer clearly poses the most potent threat to the Caribbean batsmen.
Pakistan were hoping the overnight pair of captain Babar Azam and Faheem Ashraf would have been able to continue their resistance deep into the session as they looked toward a minimum target of 200.
However, the ever-threatening Kemar Roach separated them with just eight runs added to the overnight 160 for five when Faheem edged a delivery for wicketkeeper Joshua da Silva to take a good catch low to his left.
That was the trigger for the last five wickets to tumble for 35 runs and a final total of 203.
Kyle Mayers effected the most important breakthrough when the medium-pacer got a ball to lift sharply at Babar and Jason Holder took the simple catch at slip to remove Pakistan’s premier batsman for 55.
From there on it was the Seales show as he dispatched Yasir Shah and Shaheen in quick succession.
Although Hasan Ali hit out boldly and agriculturally for 28 with two fours and two sixes, it was another attempted heave which ended the innings via a well-judged catch by Roach at fine-leg to give Seales innings figures of five for 55 and a match haul of eight for 125.
Jayden Seales of West Indies, right, celebrates the dismissal of Abid Ali of Pakistan during day 3 of the 1st Test between West Indies and Pakistan at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica, on August 14, 2021. (AFP)
Still three weeks short of his 20th birthday, he is now the youngest ever to take a five-wicket innings haul in Test cricket for the West Indies.
That delight was dulled though by the impressive Shaheen’s effort with the new ball as he trapped Kieran Powell leg-before, had captain Kraigg Brathwaite caught behind and bowled Nkrumah Bonner of the inside-edge at the start of the West Indies run chase.
Blackwood joined Chase at 16 for three and the manner of their strokeplay up to the break suggests a pivotal period play follows the lunch interval.
