For the second time in the series, a Test has moved forward significantly on the third day, with 14 wickets falling at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain. On a surface continuing to aid spin, Jomel Warrican bagged six wickets to bowl Pakistan out for 387 even as Abdullah Shafique remained stranded on an unbeaten 160. But West Indies, sans an injured Brandon King, crashed to 103/6 by Stumps with a 60-run lead in hand, as Sajid Khan and Ali Usman wreaked havoc of their own.
It was a tale of two collapses for Pakistan, who started the day on 266/2. The first of those started with Babar Azam taking off for a non-existent single, only to turn back and find himself short thanks to a direct hit from King. The Pakistan captain fell short of a hundred by 12 runs but more tellingly, King had to be stretchered off having fallen awkwardly on the pick-up and throw and he did not return to field or bat owing to a lower back spasm. Warrican then cleaned up Awais Zafar before Salman Agha was trapped in front for a duck by Shamar Joseph as Pakistan lost three wickets for five runs to leave the game in the balance. Mohammad Rizwan struck three boundaries in his 18-run stay, but he was bowled by an arm ball from Warrican with Pakistan’s score now reading 311/6.
Sajid joined overnight centurion Shafique to steady the ship with a 59-run partnership. Warrican continued to operate unchanged from one end but Sajid did not back away from playing his shots as Pakistan got to within 11 runs of West Indies’ first innings score by Lunch. They entered the lead in the second session and with Warrican given a break, as Shafique pounced on Kavem Hodge’s part-time spin, stepping out and slamming the ball over long on to get to 150. That prompted Roston Chase to summon Warrican into the attack again and while the Sajid-Shafique pair got through to drinks, Jayden Seales struck immediately after to end Sajid’s resistance on 30. Warrican then went on a rampage, picking up three wickets in the space of four balls to mop up the tail, finishing with a six-fer and leaving Shafique watching helplessly from the other end as West Indies limited Pakistan’s lead to 43 by Tea.
Hodge was bumped up the order to open the innings alongside Tagenarine Chanderpaul as West Indies began their second innings positively. Regular strike rotation and boundaries against the pacers saw them eat into the deficit, with Mohammad Ali proving to be expensive for Pakistan. But a pivot to spin worked for the visitors as Sajid dismissed Chanderpaul leg before in his first over. West Indies entered the lead in the same over and looked poised to build on it at 62/1, but the spinners turned the game on its head instead.
Amir Jangoo played back to one he should’ve come forward to and was bowled by Sajid, before left-arm spinner Usman dismissed Hodge leg before following a successful review. Shai Hope and Chase combined forces for an 88-ball vigil that produced just 25 runs, but against the turning ball, blocking their way out wasn’t going to help the batters. One ball eventually had the batter’s name on it as Sajid produced one that spun and kept low to trap Hope plumb in front. Night watchman Seales met a similar fate as Sajid undid him with the straighter one for his fourth wicket, before Chase tamely chipped one back to Usman at the stroke of Stumps.
An alarming collapse from 99/3 to 103/6, plus the uncertainty around King’s availability to bat has left West Indies in a precarious position. They will once again turn towards Justin Greaves (1*) to bail them out on the fourth morning and stretch the lead to 150.
Brief Scores: West Indies 344 & 103/6 (Kavem Hodge 34; Sajid Khan 4-32, Ali Usman 2-29) lead Pakistan 387 (Abdullah Shafique 160*, Babar Azam 88; Jomel Warrican 6-112) by 60 runs.
