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Pakistan win
comfortably despite Lara's ton |
November 14, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
Pakistan overcame a major obstacle in Brian Lara
to cruise to a comfortable nine-wicket win on
the fourth day of the Lahore Test. The sportive
crowd couldn't have asked for a better day's
play with the Prince of Trinidad coming up with
a hundred, a true masterpiece under pressure and
they got to see their side comeback after that
to bowl out Windies. The tourists could put up
just 291 leaving Pak just 13 to win despite a
122 from Lara and an 81 from Chanderpaul.
Like any other day, the first hour of the first
session would be a crucial one with the ball
expected to move around. There was an early
wicket for grabs with the night watchman hanging
in there along with the Skipper. But it took
about 30 minutes for the wicket of Fidel Edwards
to fall who succumbed with a weak defense
against an away going delivery from Shahid Nazir.
There were no more inroads that the bowlers
could make as Brian Lara and Shivnarine
Chanderpaul brought in all their experience to
counter the good balls and thrash the loose ones
to the fence. Lara and Chanderpaul moved onto 88
and 43 respectively at Lunch as they took
Windies 91 short of their deficit of 279. Lara
had a miraculous escape just few minutes before
Lunch one must say when he wasn't given out lbw
after getting struck right in front of the
stumps by a flatter and quicker delivery from
Shoaib Malik.
The sun was blazing in the afternoon and with
that batting was a cakewalk for the two big guns
of West Indies. There was a good spell of
reverse swing bowling from Umar Gul that the two
batsmen survived to get to their respective
milestones. First it was Lara getting to his
33rd Test Match hundred followed by Chanderpaul
who worked his way to bring up his 39th fifty.
However there were enough indications that Shiv
Chanderpaul was slowly running out of puff as he
was feeling dehydrated. The Physio did make a
few rounds to keep him going but the
concentration seems to have vanished. It was a
chancy move from the Skipper in charge, Younis
Khan who brought in part timer Mohammad Hafeez
who struck with his fourth delivery with the big
wicket of Brian Lara's. The offie had bowled a
straighter delivery that beat Lara's intentions
of playing a sweep to rap him up on the pads.
Simon Taufel gave that out which looked to be a
good decision. Lara made 122 in 219 balls with
19 fours.
A couple of chances were messed up by the
fielding side starting with Kamran Akmal
fumbling an easy stumping chance with
Chanderpaul jumping down the track and missing a
Danish Kaneria's delivery. The second one was a
dropped catch by Imran Farhat at short leg which
was offered by Bravo off Hafeez. Bravo couldn't
capitalize on that chance as he soon got out lbw
to Umar Gul. Chanderpaul then lost his new
partner, Denesh Ramdin who had got a doubtful
bat pad decision which gave Kaneria his first
wicket of the innings. Defeat was now inevitable
with West Indies at 252 for 7 at Tea.
The writing was on the wall once Shiv
Chanderpaul miscued a pull shot off Shahid Nazir
with the second new ball in operation.
Chanderpaul was dismissed after scoring 81 which
had come in 178 balls with 8 fours. Not much of
resistance was on offer from the tail enders
with the innings folding up in 94 overs. The
target of 13 was achieved by the homeside in 31
balls but with the loss of Mohammad Hafeez who
was caught in the crease by an incoming delivery
from Corey Collymore. For his 9 wickets in the
match, Umar Gul edged out Mohammad Yousuf who
made 192 for the Man of the Match award. The
second of the three Test-Series starts from the
19th at Inzamam's hometown, Multan.
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