SHAHEEN POWERS PAKISTAN TO 109-RUN WIN OVER WI - The Daily Guardian

Correspondent — August 26, 2021, 6:10 am

A career-best bowling performance by Shaheen Shah Afridi helped Pakistan win the second Jamaica Test and draw the two-match ICC World Test Championship series against West Indies. The hosts were dismissed for 219 on day five at the Sabina Park, Kingston on Tuesday.

Claiming career-best match figures of 10/94, Shaheen Afridi took four wickets on the final day, leaving the hosts 109 runs short.

Nauman Ali (3/52) and Hasan Ali (2/37) were miserly at the other end, as a number of West Indian players failed to capitalise on their innings starts. Beginning the day at 1/49, Alzarri Joseph (17) was the first player dismissed in Shaheen’s charge, caught by wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan as the left-armer found the top-edge of the nightwatchman’s bat.

Nkrumah Bonner fell less than four overs later to Hasan Ali, adjudged lbw after a successful review by the fielding team. The West Indies’ chances of salvaging anything from the match took another blow thanks to a fine piece of Imran Butt slip-fielding, taking a low catch to dismiss Roston Chase for a duck, Hasan’s second scalp.

In trouble at 73/4, Jermaine Blackwood joined opener and captain Kraigg Brathwaite, and provided some respite, tacking the score to three figures. However, the left-arm orthodox of Nauman was the partnership’s undoing, as a turning and bouncing delivery forced a Blackwood edge. Rizwan claimed his second catch behind the stumps, and Pakistan were five wickets away from levelling the series.

Brathwaite continued to grind, though it was perhaps a lapse in concentration in his four-hour stay at the crease that cost him his wicket, cutting a Nauman delivery to Fawad Alam at point for 39.

Afridi again struck to dismiss Kyle Mayers for 32, though Pakistan faced a new threat to deny them victory in the form of rain. A light shower forced an early call for tea with three wickets still to take, and it spurred a West Indian side who still had Jason Holder and Joshua da Silva at the crease.

Momentum looked to have swung back in the hosts’ favour as Pakistan looked desperate for a scalp, though the spin of Nauman broke the match open, beating Holder in the flight for the all-rounder to spoon a catch to short cover for 47.Afridi returned, and after trapping Kemar Roach in front for 7, dismissed da Silva for 15 to finish the job for the tourists.