BRIDGETOWN: Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq lamented his side’s inability to cope with West Indies’ bowlers as they slumped to a 106-run loss in the second Test in Barbados on Thursday.
Chasing 188 for a series win, Pakistan were all out for just 81 on the last day at the Kensington Oval and leave it all to play for in the final Test in Dominica next week.
Shannon Gabriel produced an outstanding effort of consistently fast bowling for the West Indies, taking 5-11 as Pakistan crumbled.
And Misbah who is retiring from Test cricket at the end of this series, will quickly want to forget this match after watching a familiar second-innings collapse by the tourists.
“You can easily say that it’s about batting on a day-five pitch,” he said. “We all knew from the first day that it was going to get worse, so that was the difference.
“First innings, we should have got a bigger lead. I felt we let the match get away from us by letting them get so many runs in the second innings.
“And finally, on the last day, West Indies bowled their heart out and we were left with no answers.
“Because of the height — all the bowlers are tall — it was a tailor-made pitch for them to keep hitting the deck hard and making the ball jump around.
“Our intention was to bat normally and put away the scoring opportunities but they never really came early enough for us to get going.”
Troubled by injuries and no-balls throughout his comparatively brief career, Gabriel finished with his best match figures of 9-92 to earn the Man-of-the-Match award.
“We knew we had a chance once we got a lead over 150,” said Gabriel as he savoured the success.
“I think I was trying too hard and trying to bowl too fast [in the first innings], so I just made the decision to stay calm in the second innings.
“It did reverse a bit but I still had to put the ball in the right areas. It was an up-and-down fifth-day pitch, so we knew that all we had to do was put the ball in the right areas and everything worked out for me and the team. This was a total team effort.”
Pakistan’s second innings score matched the lowest Test total at Kensington Oval set by India 20 years ago. It was also their lowest score in the Caribbean and 10th lowest anywhere.
West Indies captain Jason Holder said he always felt his team were in with a chance on a tough pitch.
“It was obviously a very good game for us. It was a collective team effort,” he said.
“I always thought once we could give them in excess of 170, I felt we would be in with a very good chance on a day-five pitch, the way it has deteriorated here.
“Using cutters and cross-seam deliveries was going to give us help on this pitch. It was an important win we needed to keep the series alive. It was important for us to show consistency and we were able to do that here.”