WEST INDIES v PAKISTAN 1987-88

Toss: Pakistan.

In a nail-biting finish to a dramatic final day which had seen each side achieve a match-winning position, Abdul Qadir, the No. 11 batsman, survived the last five balls from Richards to maintain Pakistan's lead in the series. Requiring 372 to win, Pakistan were 31 runs short of victory after Javed Miandad had drawn them nearer and nearer the target with a flawless 102 compiled over seven hours seven minutes. His seventeenth Test hundred, it came from 240 balls and contained seven fours and a five. On his dismissal, in the over before the last twenty overs began, 84 were still needed; but when Marshall dismissed the hard-hitting Wasim Akram at 311 the odds favoured West Indies. Salim Yousuf and Ijaz Faqih defended tenaciously until the last over, when Yousuf's dismissal, lbw to the first ball, brought in Qadir to play out the last tense scene.

Pakistan were unchanged from the First Test, but West Indies were able to bring back Richards and Marshall, and Benjamin retained his place because Patterson was unfit. Put in, West Indies lost Greenidge to the last ball of the Imran's first over and Haynes with only 25 on the board. Richardson and Logie added 55, and a stand of 58 in thirteen overs between Richards and Dujon improved the situation. Richards struck 49 in 43 balls with eight fours, and when he was seventh out, Imran and Qadir quickly wrapped up the innings, each finishing with four wickets. Imran, in bowling Walsh, became the fourth-highest wicket-taker in Tests.

Pakistan's jubilation was soon dashed as between tea and stumps they lost five wickets for 55. Two more wickets fell on the second morning for the addition of only 13 runs, but Malik and Yousuf dropped when 3 by Dujon, put on 94 valuable runs, a record for Pakistan's eighth wicket against West Indies. Malik batted 171 minutes for his 66. By the close, West Indies were 58 ahead with Haynes, Greenidge and Logie all out to Imran. The third day's play was dominated by Richards, who reached his 22nd Test century in 232 minutes off 134 balls. He soon lost Richardson, who the previous afternoon had passed 2,000 Test runs, but found support from Hooper and Dujon in stands that yielded 94 and 97 runs respectively. Early in the day, when he was 25, Richards became embroiled in a dispute with the Pakistan fielders, threateningly waving his bat at Yousuf after an appeal for lbw off Imran's bowling had been rejected by umpire Cumberbatch. Imran protested to the umpire about Richards's behaviour, and the situation was soon defused. In the later stages of his innings, Richards was suffering from cramp and nausea.

By the close of the third day, Qadir had taken his 200th Test wicket, that of Marshall, but Dujon was still there, and next morning he added 90 runs for the last two wickets with Benjamin and Walsh. He also completed his fifth Test hundred, having batted for five and a quarter hours and hit thirteen fours. Imran and Qadir again took the major share of the wickets. By lunch Pakistan had begun their second innings. Ramiz provided them with an attacking start, but when he was the third wicket to fall in the space of 7 runs, Miandad and Salim Malik withdrew to a defensive position. It was only after the rest day that Miandad, adding 113 for the sixth wicket with the nineteen-year-old Ijaz Ahmed, raised the prospect of victory. With their dismissals, first of Ijaz and then Miandad, Pakistan's most realistic chance disappeared.

Man of the Match: I. V. A. Richards.

Close of play: First day, Pakistan 55-5 (Salim Malik 5*, Ijaz Ahmed 1*); Second day, West Indies 78-3 (R. B. Richardson 39*, I. V. A. Richards 7*); Third day, West Indies 329-8 (P. J. L. Dujon 70*, W. K. M. Benjamin 4*); Fourth day, Pakistan 107-3 (Javed Miandad 19*, Salim Malik 17*).