|
Mohammad Yousuf’s
20th ton puts Pak ahead |
November 12, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
Mohammad Yousuf brought up his 20th Test Match
hundred to build the Pakistan’s advantage in
this First Test Match. Although bad light had
robbed quite a bit of the cricket (just 76.1
overs bowled in the second day’s play), Yousuf’s
unbeaten 107 had got Pakistan into a lead of 59
with six wickets standing. The bearded batsman
kept on smiling all the day while batting and
had just smashed his 6th hundred of the year
2006!
It was a much better day for cricket with not
much of fog in the air and the overall
visibility was far better. West Indies stuck to
a nice line and length around the offstump to
tie down the overnight batsmen – Hafeez and
Younis. Soon the patience gave away for Younis
Khan whose eyes lit up as he saw a short
delivery banged in by Fidel Edwards which he had
handsomely pulled but straight into Sarwan’s
hands at short mid wicket. It was only the 5th
over of the day that Younis had got out, he
could add up just a run to his overnight score
of 10. Windies continued to get the ball to dart
around through all their four seamers used which
had left the Pakistani batsmen to drop anchor.
The arrival of Mohammad Yousuf saw some
betterment in the run rate and with the sun
sneaking through, conditions started to look
brighter for the batting side.
Mohammad Hafeez found a few boundaries as well
and his efforts of hanging in there had helped
him to get to his 3rd Test Match fifty for which
he had to bat for atleast three hours. It was
once again Jerome Taylor coming to the aid of
his side as he got a superb inswinging yorker
that beat Hafeez with pace to strike him on the
pads. Hafeez had battled for 147 balls to score
57 which was a valuable one that had come under
testing conditions. Hafeez’s departure had got
in the big Inzamam into the middle much to the
loud cheer from the Lahori crowd. But their joy
was short lived with Inzy returning back to the
pavilion with an 8-ball duck. Inzamam was bowled
through the gate as he got foxed in the flight
after he went for a drive on the full to a
chinaman delivery from Dave Mohammed that had
dipped down beautifully. Pak went to lunch at
141 for 4 which meant that an inspired spell of
bowling from Windies could still get them out
under 300, so a lot of work had to be done after
lunch for Yousuf and co.
The post lunch session was one in which Shoaib
Malik had brilliantly applied himself to put up
a solid partnership with Yousuf. The bowlers
didn’t get much sideways movement and also the
reverse swing to allow the 5th wicket
partnership to take off. The pair of Yousuf and
Malik had been slightly cautious but the runs
were coming steadily as they added 84 runs in
the 32 overs bowled in the second session.
With 80 overs gone by, Lara took the second new
ball right away after the resumption of play in
the last session. The start was a bad one for
the tourists with Fidel Edwards bowling a couple
of no-balls which got thrashed for boundaries.
The runs were now coming at a fair clip with the
ball coming on nicely to fuel strokeplay. Yousuf
helped himself to yet another century while
Shoaib Malik got to his fifth Test Match fifty.
After just 11 overs were bowled, the two umpires
had offered the light to the batsmen who decided
to go home with Pak at 265 for 4 after 91 overs.
Yousuf’s unbeaten 107 had come in just 190 balls
with 14 boundaries. His partner Shoaib Malik had
to work hard for his 61 which took him 149 balls
with the help of 8 fours and a six that he had
hit Dave Mohammed when he was on just 1! This
partnership between Yousuf and Malik is 125 runs
and is Pak's new best for the fifth wicket
overtaking the previous best of 115 between Asim
Kamal and Shahid Afridi in the last Pak tour of
WI.
Things would have been different for the West
Indies had Ganga taken a low catch at gully
offered by Yousuf when he was on 43 and then by
Jerome Taylor who had decided to run all the way
from his follow through to point to try and take
a miscued hit from Yousuf that had ballooned up.
It was a catch that could have been taken by the
point fielder and the gully fielder but Taylor
had given the call and in the end couldn’t take
it safely. Yousuf had just got to his hundred in
the previous delivery with a leg glance for a
boundary. It was not just two times lucky for
Yousuf but three times lucky as an appeal for a
stumping wasn’t referred to the third umpire by
Asoka de Silva. Replays showed that Yousuf had
got his backleg just on the crease when Ramdin
had whipped the bails off. It was Dave Mohammed
the bowler who had gone past the outside edge of
Yousuf on 53 with a googly that turned away.
The homeside would be trying to stretch their
lead to as much as they can to make sure that
they bat only once in this Test Match. The hope
for West Indies is to delay the Pakistani
declaration and bat well in their second innings
and let the bad light eat away the time. The
optimistic might say that Windies can still get
the remaining wickets and get back in the match!
Top of the Page |
