Pakistan 96 for 1 (Masood 54*, Imam 28*, Roach 1-25) trail West Indies 311 all out (Hope 92, Hodge 84, Abbas 4-50) by 215 runs
In his first innings since losing the captaincy, Masood came within a whisker of chopping his first delivery on, and it set the tone for the rub of the green that continued to fall his way. Jomel Warrican put down a sharp chance two balls later, and another burst through the slips early in his innings. But Masood stuck to his game plan, continuing to pick up regular boundaries, whether or not he was in control of the shots they came off. By the time he reached his half-century – at better than a run a ball, his control percentage stood at 71%, with half of his ten boundaries coming of either inside or outside edge.
Imam-ul-Haq played a quieter supporting role, occasionally pouncing on the fuller delivery, but content to watch the drama unfold from the other end. The pair raced to a 95-run partnership by tea, turning the momentum of the game around in a session West Indies’ fast bowlers will feel they deserved more from.
That was the way Ali might have felt yesterday, but he got his rewards at the top of the session today. Shamar Joseph and Hope had frustrated Pakistan before lunch but it took Ali just two balls to bounce Joseph out and then nip one in sharply to Hope to trap him in front. It took him just two more balls to wrap the innings up, which was especially valuable for a Pakistan side that have been guilty of struggling to rip through the tail efficiently of late.
Pakistan got the old ball to talk in the morning and kept knocking West Indies’ batters over regularly, getting four wickets before lunch. They had spent a turgid final session on Saturday wicketless, but West Indies had managed no boundaries either, and thus were by no means out of sight. Khurram Shahzad drew the top-scorer Kavem Hodge into prodding at a wide one that Salman Agha grasped comfortably inside the first three overs of the day which set Pakistan on their way.
It followed an hour of plays and misses as the old ball nipped and swung sharply. Pakistan’s seam bowlers have been criticised for lacking pace, but they made up for it with wobble, continually discomfiting the batters. Awais put down a golden opportunity to get rid of Hope when he nicked Ali off to the slips, but Ali’s persistence eventually paid off as that probing off stump line found Justin Greaves’ outside edge, with Salman Agha ensuring he made no mistake once more.
Curiously, the new ball appeared to dilute the threat the seam bowlers posed, but by no means extinguished it. While Hope looked largely comfortable for the rest of the session, he was very much on his own in that aspect. Mohammad Abbas’ characteristic accuracy found a feather off Roston Chase’s outside edge, while Khurram Shahzad came back to extinguish Kemar Roach’s stubborn resistance to reduce West Indies to seven down.
Shamar Joseph played a breezy little cameo to get West Indies over 300, but Ali ensured they wouldn’t pull too much further ahead, and Masood spent the rest of the session swiftly cutting that lead down to size
Danyal Rasool is Cricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent. @Danny61000
