Greetings to our viewers and readers from the last week test cricket has been at its peak and we are having a great entertainment in the most tough format of the game.
Let's start our blog 1st of all we will talk about Pakistan Vs West Indies 1st test match.
West Indies has opened his account in WTC with the most dramatic win at Sabina Park.
It started with the domination of home side from 1st day as they restricted Pakistan to just 217 with Fawad Alam was top scorer with his fighting fifty.Jason Holder and Jayedn Seales got 3 wickets each but Pakistan started brilliantly with the ball in hand Abbass got 2 wickets in 2 balls at the end of the day to level the things.
Day 2 partnership between Holder and Brathwaite got home side back in the game and especially Brathwaite played captain's innings of 97. At the end they finished the innings with 36 runs lead,for Pakistan Shaheen Afridi got 4 wickets.
In Pakistan's 2nd innings Imran Butt went early but Azhar and Abid built a nice little partnership but then Jayeden Seales and Kemar Roach destroyed the batting line up of Pakistan and they got all out on just 203.Babar Azam was the only stand out batsman who got fifty in tough situationJayedn Seales got his 1st fifer and he was the youngest West Indian to do so.
In 4th innings West Indies required just 168 to win but Pakistani bowlers started things in some style Shaheen Afridi got 3 wickets upfront and home side was 16/3 at one moment.Then a good partnerahip between Blackwood and Chase changed things a bit after that Hassan Ali and Faheem Ashraf joined the party.On last wicket West Indies required 17 runs and Roach and Seales done the job for home side.
West Indies won the match by bearest of the margins just one wicket and Jayden Seales was the man of the match.We have seen Pant's test in Gabba and Mayer's test in Bangladesh and it was about Seales we can say that after all cricket is unpredictable game.Both sides played really well but drop catches cost the match for Pakistan after 16/3 that was Pakistan's match to lost and unfortunately they did.These 2 sides were involved in a thriller in the last tour of Pakistan where Yasir Shah knocked over Shanon Gabriel just on the last ball of the 2nd last over the match but this time luck is changed but no problem 2nd test awaits us on 20 August.
I have written this series as blockbuster series in my 1st blog about this series and it is real blockbuster test series going on.
Let's get a whole preview of 2nd test.
It has started with overcast conditions and England opted to bowl 1st but Indian openers Rohit and Rahul were superb and they put a partnership over 100 then Rohit got out but Rahul scored a great 127 for his side and India was all out at 364.
When England started his innings they lost 2 wickets in 2 deliveries from Siraj.Then Joe Root came in and played one of the scintillating knock to get his team in commanding position,he scored magnificent 180 not out
and England finished with the lead of 27.But things started from Bumrah's over against Jimmy Anderson where he hit him with 3 back to back bouncers.That was plan after bouncer there will be Yorker and he did that but England took it too seriously.
When India started their 2nd innings they were 50/3 including the big wicket of their captain Virat Kohli who chased a very wide delivery and nicked it of Sam Curran.After that Pujara and Rahane calmed things down with their defensive mindset they were criticised to play slow.They put a nice partnership but at the end they both got out and Moeen got Jadeja also.
On day 5 Ollie Robinson got Pant early and that was England's match every one thought but this was a critical point when Bumrah and Shami came to the crease emotions were all over on English players as they decided to give them their own medicine with short bowling.Meanwhile they lost their way and Shami got a match winning fifty and built a partnership with Bumrah of 89 not out.Main thing at this point was body language of both sides English players were down and all the Indian side was completely charged and pumped up.
England required 271 runs in exact 60 overs but their hopes of chasing the target were done and dusted in just 10 balls when their both openers Burns and Sibley went on duck and they has to play to save the test but that was not the case.Indian bowlers were completely fired up and they were getting the wickets on continuous.Bairstow got out on the last ball before the tea and right after tea the biggest fish Joe Root was undone by Bumrah.After that Siraj joined the party and he is some bowler everytime he comes in he bowls with heart and energy and India required that at that time.He got Moeen and Curran in just 2 balls and got himself on a hat trick but that couldn't happen.After that Buttler and Robinson showed some fight but that wasn't long lasting and it was finished by Bumrah and Siraj who got 4 wickets and 8 in the match and helped his team to win by 151 runs.
That was a great exhibition of test cricket if you think that test cricket is boring then think twice there was the energy,passion and great skills.You don't see that fans cheering the dot ball but in test cricket you can and we have seen 2 great test matches in last 2 days.The stage is set with fire and passion and 3 matches still to come let's see how it goes.You can visit us at www.cric-talk.com for more details.