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Pak batsmen make
merry on a flat Multan track |
November 19, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
Pakistan controlled the opening day’s play of
the second Test at Multan ending at a dominant
263 for 4. The middle order had cashed in after
a solid opening stand of 83 between Hafeez and
Farhat which lasted for more than two hours to
defy any inroads from the seamers under overcast
conditions. The Multan track as expected turned
out to be a flat one and the bowlers struggled
to move the ball around. It was a day when Imran
Farhat came good but not good enough to make a
hundred.
There was no doubt on what Inzy, the local boy
would do after winning the toss at his home
ground. The Pakistan side remained unchanged
from the one that beat West Indies at Lahore.
The tourists had made two changes; the biggest
was that of dropping Vice-Captain Ramnaresh
Sarwan. The other change was Jamaican Daren
Powell coming in for Fidel Edwards. This match
was the 100th Test for Shivnarine Chanderpaul
who became the 8th West Indian to achieve the
feat. The start from Pakistan was a tremendous
one, the opening pair had seen off the first
session on their own had it been a normal two
hours session. It was in the 28th over that West
Indies could finally find a breakthrough with
Mohammad Hafeez edging a short delivery and wide
delivery from Jerome Taylor that had bounced a
touch extra in his attempted cut shot. Hafeez
exited for 36. A light shower had started to
come down just at the stroke of lunch and all it
could do was delay the post lunch session by 20
minutes.
The homeside which resumed at 109 for 1 after
lunch pressed on with another good partnership
between Imran Farhat and Younis Khan. Imran
Farhat who could have easily gone onto score his
3rd test hundred messed it up by poking at an
away going delivery from Dwayne Bravo to the
slips to depart for 74. His runs had come in 158
balls with the help of 10 fours. West Indies
couldn’t come back in the game with Younis Khan
putting up an 87-run partnership with Mohammad
Yousuf before the Vice-Captain was caught at
gully off Jerome Taylor. Younis made a watchful
56 which came in 129 balls with six fours. Pak
lost one more wicket before the close that of
Yousuf’s as the right hander drove Gayle early
and uppishly to Lara at short mid wicket.
Mohammad Yousuf scored a run more than what
Younis had made and his innings had a six along
with three boundaries. At stumps, Inzamam-ul-Haq
got over his rustiness to remain unbeaten on 30
and giving him company was Shoaib Malik on 4.
This was the first day in the Test Series that
all the overs were bowled in the day’s play in
fact, 91 overs were bowled today with bad light
not coming in way of the proceedings.
Among the bowlers, Jerome Taylor was the most
successful with 2 for 61. Corey Collymore had a
terrific opening spell where he had conceded
less than a run; he ended the day with no
wickets in 16 overs having given away just 23
runs. The third seamer, Daren Powell was
expensive going for 50 in 12 overs. Pakistan
will look to get a big first innings total on
the board to keep the West Indians out of the
match.
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