Sajid Khan and Abrar Ahmed paced Pakistan with their spin bowling, who dismissed West Indies for 123 to win the first test at Multan by 127 runs on day three while spinners ruled the land.
It was the shortest played men’s test in Pakistan which lost 40 wickets from 1064 balls.
Bowlers occupied 16 wickets on Sunday as seven wickets by Jomel Warrican held Pakistan’s second innings to 157, and West Indies were all out for 251 at a time when the turgid turn-driven surface had them falling apart.
“It’s hard out there. It was difficult to bat,’ said Pakistan captain Shan Masood.
“In the second innings, we came in cheap.” There is room for improvement. You get to ride and be happy when you are the winner. But we can’t do that.”
Pakistan, who led by 93 after the first innings, were 109-3 after night break but Warrican put Pakistan on top by retiring Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan in successive balls.
Warrican continued his thrashing attack with Kamran Ghulam (27) being bowled short of the target and then with Salman Agha (14) becoming Gudakesh Motie’s only wicket of the innings, the hosts went down with seven wickets in 48.
“Let’s see how Warrican bowled. And let’s as spinners look at that. He was getting the ball in front of the batsman,” West Indies captain Kraigg Braithwaite said.
BRAITHWAITE FALLS
Braithwaite (12) was the first casualty when the visitors roared after him in trying to get at Khan for a six only to land on Khurram Shahzad deep in mid-wicket.
Keacy Carty (6) was trying to bowl at Khan but the ball broke his glove and got trapped by Rizwan. Khan then scamper-balled Kavem Hodge (0) and Mikyle Louis (13) and took them out off tight lines for West Indies to trail 37-4.
Alick Athanaze (55) battled back, adding some early striders to pressure the bowlers. But Ahmed kept getting bats down at the other end, as Tevin Imlach (14) and Kevin Sinclair (10) were both knocked down before they could fully calm down.
Khan finally trapped Athanaze leg before wicket and a rebellious Warrican got the last word when he was bowled out for a duck to back-rub Ahmed.
“The surface was big with the turn and bounce… We were going to shut the runs down. If we can do that, wickets will come by default,” Khan said.
He picked up nine wickets in the test including five in the second innings in a player-of-the-match display.
Three home tests have been taken for Pakistan who thrashed England twice in a three-match series to win it 2-1 last October.
Braithwaite also said the visitors had to be tough in the second and final test of the series, which starts at the same location on Jan. 25 as well.
“You’ve got to be optimistic on pitches like that,” he said. “We have to show will… if we get it together batting and bowling we can take the game on the road.