PAK WIN LAHORE TEST

Javed Ali, SQUARE CUT, YaHind Sports

A reinforced Pakistan with the return of their captain Inzamam-ul-Haq beat West Indies by 9 wickets in the first test match being played at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore With a day Spare as the match was folded up at the end of fourth day's play. It looks as if sudden collapses are haunting West Indians following their recent failures at the DLF Cup and the Champions Trophy finals, Brian Lara after winning a good toss elected to bat first with Chris Gayle and Darren Ganga starting off cautiously, Gayle in such a tremendous form exploded with some hard hitting but soon was trapped leg before to Shahid Nazir, when Ramnaresh Sarwan was back in the pavilion the West Indians were in deep trouble. Brian Lara stood at one end shouldering responsibility, simply watching batsmen losing wickets at the other end against some hostile bowling by Umar Gul who captured 5 wickets for 65 runs reducing the opponents to 206 all out on the first day, a patient 61 by Lara and a sensible 35 by Dave Mohammed helped the team to reach a total Beyond 200. Pakistan gave a fitting reply with a brilliant century by Mohammed Yousuf who never looked to give his wicket to the tiring West Indian bowlers, with useful contributions from opener Mohammed Hafeez 57, the dependable Shoaib Malik 69 and a fighting 78 by their wicket-keeper batsmen Kamran Akmal hence occupying Driver's seat on the 2nd day, they eventually were all out for 485 acquiring a handsome lead of 279 runs. West Indies in their 2nd innings in a bid to wipe off the lead lost Gayle, Ganga in quick succession in the post tea session with Umar Gul and Shahid Nazir once Again producing fine piece of fast bowling with the score board reading 61 for 3 wickets, Brian Lara playing in a peculiar fashion proved why he is considered one of The best batsmen in the world with a marvelous century, he looked deeply disappointed as the other boys did not show any determination to stay at the crease, He even did not remove his helmet after scoring his 33rd hundred now just a little away from Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar. The only support he got was from the Experienced and stubborn bat of Shivnaraine Chanderpaul who scored a valuable 81. During the presentation ceremony, both captains praised the sterling performances by Umar Gul who captured 9 wickets in the match, and Mohammed Yousef It was nice to see Inzamam expressing that he certainly miss the services of banned Shoaib & Asif, but he proclaimed that the present 15 member squad does not Lack and are worthy to be called as 1st grade team.