Pakistan Cruise to Sixth Consecutive Win.

By Faraz Shaukat
February 25 2002

Pakistan won its sixth consecutive test match along with a clean sweep of the series against the West Indies as they comprehensively whipped them in exactly four days in the second and final test match. Waqar was again among the wickets who seems to be enjoying winning and leading from the front.

Pakistan consistently in the batting continued in this test match as Pakistan once again scored well over 400 runs in their first innings, Australia philosophy of scoring 400+ and winning the test match every time was quite clearly on the display in this series. Despite the lack of assistance in the pitch, Pakistan had the attack to still pressure the opposition batsmen purely because they had so many runs to play with.

It cannot be emphasized enough how pleasing it is to see a batting line-up respond despite the failures of key players and the lack of experience at the top of the order. Pakistan was once again short of a consistent opening combination; this time around Taufeeq Omar was the confirmed choice, while Naveed Latif opening in the first and then was replaced by Shahid Afridi in the second. The first test saw a opening partnership of 3 and 88 while the second 12 and 19 hardly pleasing figures. However the pleasing fact was the Younis Khan played the role of a number three perfectly, he made sure that there was not chance of a collapse and gradually settled the innings, a sign of some level or thinking and planning going on in the Pakistan ranks.

For once the failure of Inzimam was not noticed at all the in the series, batsmen like Younis Khan, the ever reliable Yousuf Youhanna, Rashid Latif and Abdur Razzaq each scored piles of runs, 309, 270, 215, and 143 to be exact. This allowed Pakistan's batting line up to look very long rather then the scored being 200-5 and Abdur Razzaq the last batsmen of any note!

Carl Hooper said that without Wasim, this was one of the weakest Pakistan teams he has played against, well I am sorry to say but Mr. Hooper seems to be catching some of that "sore loser" bug that Richie Richardson had, when he lost the Frank Worrell Trophy to Australia! This is definitely a very strong Pakistan outfit and right now, it would be a difficult decision who to drop if Wasim was to come back, probably Danish would have to be rested. Nevertheless, once again Pakistan's bowlers excelled under the leadership and positive thinking of Waqar Younis, he made very good bowling changes and never really allowed the batsmen to settle to any bowler. If you have a look at the number of overs bowled by all bowlers they are all pretty similar. Waqar bowled 56.3, Shoaib 60, Razzaq 45, Saqlain 88 and Danish 69. Sure Saqqy had a slightly larger workload, but if you have a look at past series you will find that Saqqy would have bowled a LOT more overs, I guess the fact that West Indies didn't really last that long might be a point as well!

For once Shoaib Akhtar come to the fore and he wasn't a one innings bowler or even a one test match bowler. That second innings of the first test where Waqar chose to start with Saqlain must really have hurt Shoaib and he really responded from then on. Once again our captain Waqar has been looking at Steve Waugh's tactics!

West Indies were definitely out played in all departments of the game, but we would be going to far to say that Pakistan is ready for sides like Australia and South Africa, they still really haven't met a side which has applied sufficient pressure on their batting, that is when the real test will come. However, their will to win and search for those killer blows consistently is extremely encouraging and their hunger to win more matches is dangerous. Beware of a Pakistan side on a winning streak! I would imagine that by now these boys would have started to notice that they have won six on the trot and you can bet your life that they wont be letting any test match go easily from here on!