Guyana Test: Sammy, Bishoo help West Indies win by 40 runs – Highlights

Raleigh Mcpherson May 16, 2011 0

Guyana Test: Sammy, Bishoo help West Indies win by 40 runs – Highlights

GUYANA: West Indies defeated Pakistan in the first Test of the two-match series by 40 runs on Day Four at Providence Stadium in Guyana here Sunday.

Darren Sammy. Courtesy: AP PHOTO

West Indian skipper Darren Sammy led from the front on Sunday when his team needed his heroics as the right-arm medium fast bowler grabbed five wickets which dented Pakistan’s fourth innings chase and wrapped up the innings at 178 runs, 40 runs short of the target.

Three of Pakistan’s top-order played well but failed to prolong their innings as Asad Shafiq (42), skipper Misbah-ul-Haq (52), and Umar Akmal (47) spent some time in the middle and looked good during their innings.

However, it was those 48 runs put on by the last two West Indian batsmen that made the difference in the end as Pakistan fell 40 runs short of the target on a fourth day pitch but this time the destroyers were not spinners.

Ravi Rampaul. Courtesy: Getty Images

For the first three days of the Guyana Test, spinners had a major role to play with seamers and fast bowlers had little to show in the name of performance. Pakistan’s orthodox off-spinner Saeed Ajmal grabbed 11 wickets in the match and West Indian leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo took four wickets in the first innings, while Mohammad Hafeez and Abdur Rehman also chipped in with crucial wickets. That was the story of first three days of the Guyana Test during which a total of 23 wickets fell, 13 out of which falling on the second day.

West Indian fast bowler Ravi Rampaul, who has impressed everyone with his gritty line and length as well as wits to use outswingers and in-dippers, took seven wickets in the match, three in the first innings and four in the second. He was the only fast bowler who was able to extract something out of the Guyana pitch.

Darren Sammy. Courtesy: AP PHOTO

Pakistan’s best bowler Umar Gul proved toothless, just like in the semi-final clash against India in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in March. Gul failed to take even a single wicket in the Guyana Test.

The Day 4 started with Pakistan needing another 139 runs to win the test match with seven wickets in hands and two of their best batsmen at the crease.

Ravi Rampaul started the rout for West Indies when he clean-bowled Asad Shafiq after the right-hand batsman had scored 42 runs from 110 balls hitting six boundaries. Asad added 81 runs for the fourth wicket in company of his captain Misbah-ul-Haq who stood solid at the other end.

Devon Smith, Abdur Rehman. Courtesy: Getty Images

Misbah was joined by young Umar Akmal and the pair fed 52 more runs into the total during their fifth wicket partnership before Sammy brought himself back into the attack.

Sammy got rid of Misbah (47 from 102 – 3 fours) and wicketkeeper batsman Mohammad Salman (Duck) in the same over thus giving his other bowlers a chance to have a full go at long Pakistani tail.

Rampaul struck again and this time got an edge slipping from Abdur Rehman’s (6) blade into the slip position where Devon Smith took a beautiful low catch. Umpires took assistance from the TV umpire before finally giving Rehman out.

Darren Sammy, Saeed Ajmal. Courtesy: AP PHOTO

West Indian skipper then claimed the most important scalp of Umar Akmal (47) who just like his captain opted to take chance with the DRS but replays proved he was trapped right in front with ball going nowhere but hitting the stumps.

The rest was a mere formality as Saeed Ajmal (3) was the last batsman to lose his wicket off Sammy as Pakistan fell 40 runs short of the target.

The test match was also remarkable due to the fact that it had record number of decisions given as Leg-Before-Wickets (LBWs) as a total of 20 dismissals were claimed through this way.

Darren Sammy. Courtesy: Getty Images

Pakistan were also left to rue another poor display with the bat where there three batsmen got out without troubling the scorers at duck. Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali, and Mohammad Salman all failed to score which cost Pakistan dearly in the end.

Darren Sammy was declared Man of the Match for his witty captaincy as well as five wickets in the second innings.

Overall, Guyana Test proved a test of patience for the batsmen where none of the teams could score over 250 runs in any of the four innings but bowlers had enough respite from the pitch to make it count big.

The two teams will now travel to St Kitts where the second test will start from May 20^th.