The West Indies and Pakistan return to Sabina Park in Jamaica on Friday for the second and final test of their two match series. The first match went right down to the wire with the hosts emerging victorious by one wicket and they now find themselves one match away from their first series win against Pakistan since 2000.
After sending Pakistan in to bat, the West Indies managed to restrict the visitors to 217 thanks to some excellent bowling by the seamers. Seales and Holder were the top wicket takers for the Windies with 3 each, while Roach contributed a couple. The top order failed to get going for Pakistan and they had to rely on the middle order batting of Fawad Alam (56), Babar Azam (30) and Faheem Ashraf (44) to get them past the 200 mark.
Pakistan responded well initially by dismissing Powell and Bonner at number 2 and 3 for a duck and left the West Indies at 2/2 at the end of the first day. However, captain Brathwaite steadied the ship somewhat and put in a monster of an innings adding 97 for his side off of 221 balls. A handy 58 runs by Holder at number 7 along with small contributions by Chase(21), Blackwood(22) and Da Silva(21) helped the hosts reach 253 and take the first innings lead. Shaheen Afridi led the bowling for Pakistan with four wickets, while Mohammad Abbas added three.
Despite a slightly better performance at the top of the batting order by Pakistan in the second innings they failed to improve on their first innings score and were all out for 203. Fawad Alam failed to follow up his first innings 50 and went out for a duck this time around, while captain Azam spent the most time at the crease for a hard-fought 55 off of 160 balls – the top score for his side in the second innings. Seales was brilliant again for the hosts and added another 5 wickets to his tally for the match. Kemar Roach added 3.
The West Indies were left with 168 to chase to win the match and after a dodgy start which saw them sitting at 16/3 at one stage, they managed to recover and reach their target thanks to a 55 run stand at number 5 by Jermaine Blackwood, as well as a match-winning cameo at number 9 by Roach for 30 runs. Shaheen Afridi managed another 4 wickets and Hasan Ali added 3 of his own but unfortunately they came up one wicket short of a victory.
Prediction
I feel like the Windies got quite lucky in this one largely due to a poor batting performance from Pakistan. I expect the visitors to bounce back in this one and deny the Windies their long-awaited series win against Pakistan. On paper they certainly have the better batting line-up and despite Jayden Seales being in remarkable form right now for the Windies I see a better performance with the willow from Pakistan. Abid Ali has got the potential to provide the visitors with a good solid foundation for their innings and I reckon he will lead from the top with his batting this time around, while I expect Shaheen Afridi to continue his destruction with the ball.
BetOlimp Best Bets
Pakistan to win – 1.91
Top Home 1st Innings Bowler – J Seales 4.00
Top Away 1st Innings Bowler – S Afridi 4.00
Top Away 1st Innings Batsman – Abid Ali 5.50