An otherwise dire day of Test cricket in Dubai between Pakistan and West Indies was brought to life late on day three as Pakistan took three crucial wickets to swing the game back in their favour.
The big scalp was Darren Bravo whose 258 ball at the crease ended when he was caught at bat pad by Azhar Ali off Mohammad Nawaz for 87. It was Nawaz’s first Test wicket.
The turning point was Wahab Riaz producing a typically fiery, all or nothing spell on a lifeless pitch to remove both Jerome Blackwood and Royston Chase with bouncers that created a vital opening.
Masters of the art of reverse swing, it was unsurprising when Pakistan were able to extract it for the first time in the match at the start of the final session, but it was Wahab’s aggressive short pitch bowling that made the greater impact.
It has become customary for Wahab to produce such spells of bowling in Dubai and it was what this game needed in pursuit of any result other than a draw. Shortly after taking the new ball, Wahab tore in for four overs, taking two wickets for just ten runs in the process.
He explained that doing so was no easy matter.
“It’s difficult to bowl with the pink ball right now. There’s a lot of dew and the ball got wet. So because of the wetness the ball has gotten softer and it is not going through the wicket and starts skidding,” said Wahab.
“Because of the softness of the ball and because it got wet we are not getting any kind of conventional swing or reverse swing.”
The ball was replaced after 55 overs of the West Indies innings and Wahab explained that the harder new ball offers some relief.
“[The replacement ball] was a bit harder and it was getting through nicely. The way Sohail Khan was bowling to Samuels and the way we got that wicket I think was because the ball was a bit harder,” the 31-year-old added.
Until then it was a battle of attrition between the two teams and as Bravo and Marlon Samuels combined for 113 for the third wicket there was little Pakistan could do to counter them, as was the case for the West Indies across the majority of the first two days.
Highlighting the point was the fact it took 223 overs for the first wicket to fall to seam.
Sohail Khan’s persistence to test Samuels’ issues on and around off-stump finally drew deserved reward when the West Indian was trapped lbw for 76. It was expert perseverance from Sohail who had stuck to his guns by bowling over 60 per cent of his deliveries into Samuels’ area of concern.
For the 300-odd fans in the stadium, such doggedness was also required as the game continued to test the patience of anyone present. The novelty of the pink ball and Test match under lights wearing off in parallel with the paint was stripping from the Kookaburra.
Even Sarfraz Ahmed, known as a fidgety, livewire character, was in need of some entertainment, spotted singing to himself shortly after dinner in either an attempt to serenade first slip or keep his mind active.
West Indies will have been pleased to have kept concentration for so long as, across 90 overs of tepid cricket, the touring side looked comfortable for the first time on this tour.
It didn’t look like that would be the case early on as Yasir Shah bowled Kraigg Brathwaite for 32 with just the 12th ball of the day.
But from then on, West Indies negated the Pakistan attack with ease, albeit slowly and without scoring at a pace that could have made a positive result for Pakistan more unrealistic.
Bravo’s innings epitomised this, his admirable defence producing 87 runs but amassing 206 dot balls as his preference for blocking was far more evident than his accumulation.
West Indies’ tendency to dot up rather than tick the scoreboard over may prove costly, especially considering the wickets they lost in the third session. It means Pakistan are still 264 runs in the ascendancy with two days to play, rather than their opponents closing in on their total and at least removing the issue of a follow-on.
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