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Amelia Kerr took 3 for 35 to topple Pakistan over for just 147, a score they chased down with 26 overs and seven wickets in hand

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Nov-2017
ScorecardGetty Images

New Zealand’s spinners, led by legspinner Amelia Kerr’s 3 for 35, helped topple Pakistan over for 147 in the second ODI in Sharjah. The batsmen then had little trouble in hunting down the target with seven wickets in hand and 26 overs to spare. Sophie Devine continued her fine form from the first ODI, hitting a 48-ball 62 with eight fours.Pakistan elected to bat first, but struggled from the outset, losing Ayesha Zafar in the seventh over for 2. Opener Nahida Khan and captain Bismah Maroof brought Pakistan back into the game with a 46-run, third-wicket partnership of 75 balls, the second-highest stand of the match.The middle order, though, capitulated against Kerr and offspinner Leigh Kasperek, losing 5 for 39 to slump to 113 for 7. Sana Mir hit 31 off 46 balls, but Pakistan lost their last three wickets without a run.In reply, captain Suzie Bates and Devine struck an 80-run opening stand in just 12.5 overs. Amy Satterthwaite struck 25 off 34 balls. Offspinner Javeria Khan took 2 for 6 in her three overs.

Legspinner surplus to current requirements and could seek permanent move

Matt Roller10-Jun-2022Nathan Sowter, the Australian-born, England-qualified legspinner, has joined Durham on loan for the rest of the T20 Blast and looks set to leave Middlesex permanently when his contract expires later this year.Sowter, 29, is Middlesex’s third-highest wicket-taker in T20 history but is yet to feature in a matchday squad this year. He has been actively seeking a loan move and looks set to make his Durham debut against Lancashire on Friday night after agreeing to join them until mid-July.He is available to play in all formats, and is unlikely to feature for Middlesex again, not least because he was retained by Oval Invincibles for the Hundred and as such will not be available to play in the Royal London Cup in August.Sowter took 15 Blast wickets last season with an economy rate of 7.50 but the emergence of two spinners through the Middlesex academy – legspinning allrounder Luke Hollman and left-arm spinner Thilan Walallawita – has left him surplus to requirements.The club’s management have also opted to use one of their two overseas spots for the Blast on a spinner – Mujeeb Ur Rahman is due to replace Chris Green imminently – meaning that Sowter has not been called upon even when they have fielded three spinners in the same side.Related

• Last-gasp Liam Trevaskis takes Durham across the line

• Shan Masood shows versatility to drive Derbyshire's low-key challenge

• Fuller pulls rug from under Essex in comfortable Hampshire defence

• vd Merwe blitz sees Somerset slip and slide past Gloucs

• Lynn cashes in with 113* as Northants crush Worcs

ESPNcricinfo understands that Sowter was told shortly before the start of the Blast that he was unlikely to feature in their plans for the tournament and he has been looking for a loan move over the last two weeks.”Sowts hasn’t been selected for any first-team action this year due to the progression of other players within the squad,” Alan Coleman, Middlesex’s head of performance, said.”We have made a conscious decision to give match experience and opportunities to those players, with an eye on building our longer-term plans. Sowts is a great bloke and we wish him every success during his loan spell with Durham at the Riverside.”Scott Borthwick, Durham’s legspinning allrounder, is unavailable for Friday night’s game due to a wrist injury which requires an injection, so the club have signed Sowter as cover. If he impresses over the next few weeks, it could be the precursor to a permanent deal.Middlesex started the season brightly, winning their opening three matches, but have now lost four games in a row, while Durham are eighth out of nine in the North Group after two wins and five losses from their first seven games.

Carter, Rawlins, Coles fifties have Sussex still 429 in front

ECB Reporters Network12-Jul-2022Leicestershire 159 for 1 (Kimber 91*, Patel 67*) trail Sussex 588 (Alsop 150, Orr 70, Carter 75, Rawlins 75, Coles 59, Parkinson 5-128) by 429 runsLeicestershire produced an impressive response after Sussex racked up 588 on the second day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match at Hove.The Foxes lost Hassan Azad to the first ball of their reply, but Rishi Patel and Louis Kimber batted with increasing authority in an unbroken stand which took them to 159 for one at stumps. They still trail by 429 but a slow pitch is showing little sign of deterioration.Earlier, Sussex had piled up their highest total for seven years, after Oliver Carter, Delray Rawlins and James Coles, the 18-year-old making only his fifth first-class appearance, all scored half-centuries.Resuming on 407 for 4, Carter and Rawlins extended their fifth-wicket stand to 119 in 25 overs, although Carter would have been run out on 70 had Ed Barnes not missed the stumps by millimetres in his follow through after being called through for a single.Callum Parkinson came into the attack in the 18th over of the day and Rawlins hit his first ball for four to bring up his half-century.But Parkinson struck in his next over when Carter played on for 75 attempting to dab the ball into the off side. It was a muted end to a fine innings by the in-form 20-year-old, who has scored 422 runs in his last five Championship innings.Rawlins had mixed aggression – he came down the pitch to drive Barnes over his head for six – with wristy accumulation in his 75 when he was struck on the back leg sweeping at Parkinson, who then persuaded Henry Crocombe to drag a ball from outside off-stump to mid-wicket in his next over.But Coles added 49 for the last wicket with Sean Hunt, hitting four sixes in his 59 in his maiden first-class fifty before he was beaten in the flight by Parkinson coming down the pitch once more. Parkinson’s hard graft was rewarded with figures of five for 128 from 41.5 overs while 61 extras swelled the Sussex total.Steve Finn, captaining Sussex after Tom Haines broke his hand on Monday, made an immediate impact when Azad was caught at slip off a ball which did just enough off the seam to take the edge.But Patel and Kimber got their heads down to negotiate the new ball although they both offered half-chances.Rawlins got fingertips to a fiercely-struck straight drive by Patel diving to his left and Coles couldn’t quite hold on running in at full stretch from deep square leg when Kimber mistimed a pull off Henry Crocombe on 48.Once the new ball lost its hardness, though, batting became much more straightforward and at stumps Kimber was in sight of his maiden first-class hundred, having already reached a career-best 91 while Patel passed fifty for the third time in his career.

M Vijay, Mohammed Shami and Wriddhiman Saha will play for India A in their third and final four-day match to prepare for the first Test against England

Shashank Kishore08-May-2018

India A squads

Tri-series: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Shubhman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Vijay Shankar, K. Gowtham, Axar Patel, Krunal Pandya, Prasidh Krishna, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shardul Thakur
Four-day matches: Karun Nair (capt), R Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Ankit Bawne, Vijay Shankar, KS Bharat (wk), Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohammad Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Rajneesh Gurbani

Under-19 World Cup winners Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill have broken into the India A squad that will tour England in June-July. The selectors also decided, in consultation with India coach Ravi Shastri, that M Vijay, Mohammed Shami and Wriddhiman Saha would play for India A in their third and final four-day match to prepare for the first Test against England at Edgbaston, which begins on August 1.Shaw, 18, already has five hundreds in ten first-class matches and a pair of fifties for Delhi Daredevils in the ongoing IPL season. He has found a place in both the 50-overs and four-day squads while Gill is only part of the limited-overs leg of the tour. Shreyas Iyer will lead the 50-overs squad in a tri-series that also involves England Lions and West Indies A, while Karun Nair will lead India A’s four-day squad.Shaw aside, Mayank Agarwal and Vijay Shankar feature in both squads. Agarwal’s selection comes on the back of a breakout 2017-18 domestic season, in which he made 2141 runs across formats, the most by an Indian batsman in a single season. Shankar, meanwhile, is being groomed as a back-up for Hardik Pandya as a seam-bowling allrounder. A BCCI official confirmed that the team management was keen to see how Shankar would perform with the ball in seaming conditions.Rajneesh Gurbani was the only member of Vidarbha’s Ranji Trophy-winning team find a place in the India A squads. Gurbani picked up successive five-wicket hauls in a thrilling semi-final win against Karnataka and in the final against Delhi, a performance that included a hat-trick.Sanju Samson was picked as a specialist batsman for the 50-over squad, but MSK Prasad, the chairman of selectors, didn’t rule out the possibility that the wicketkeepers would be rotated. Rishabh Pant and KS Bharat are the designated one-day and four-day keepers on the tour.The 50-overs squad had three allrounders in Krunal Pandya, K Gowtham and Axar Patel. Gowtham was dropped from the India A squad that played New Zealand A last year for “insulting the Duleep Trophy”, but has forced his way back in after impressing for Karnataka and Rajasthan Royals. Axar, meanwhile, will have an opportunity to press home his case for India’s home season, having been left out of India’s limited-overs squads for their tour of England. After his India A commitments, he will play six County Championship fixtures for Durham.India A’s tour kicks off with the tri-series followed by three four-day fixtures (two against West Indies A from July 4 to 7 and July 10 to 13, and one against England Lions from July 16 to 19).

South Africa are aiming for all-out attack in their Champions Trophy opener against Sri Lanka, whose batting line-up they have had the better of in recent times

Firdose Moonda02-Jun-2017South Africa are aiming for all-out attack in their Champions Trophy opener against Sri Lanka, whose batting line-up they have had the better of in recent times. Not only have South Africa won their last seven matches against Sri Lanka, but they have bowled them out in six of those and have reason to believe they can do it again.”We know that we have an opportunity and the ability to bowl the Sri Lankan side out. It’s a matter of getting that combination right and getting the right players on a par to do so,” AB de Villiers, South Africa’s captain, said. “To me it’s really important to get your top three, four bowlers in there. Not that the allrounders can’t take wickets but I’ll probably be leaning towards getting your best bowlers in to make sure we have our best chance to bowl them out and to get 10 wickets in the game.”De Villiers’ desire for an out-and-out strike bowler suggests he will opt for an attack that includes both Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel, the only two specialist quicks in a squad with four allrounders. But that does not sync with coach Russell Domingo’s sentiments from three days ago that Morkel’s place in the XI was uncertain because South Africa want a deeper batting line-up. Morkel only played one of the three ODIs against England and before that had not played 50-over cricket since June 2016 which has left him on the fringes of a side that is still searching for an allrounder in the Jacques Kallis mould to complete it.But, South Africa may not see a need to concern themselves too much with runs against Sri Lanka. In four of the last seven matches they’ve played against them, South Africa have bowled Sri Lanka out for under 200. That includes the 2015 World Cup quarter final, where Imran Tahir took 4 for 26, and the home series earlier this year, which South Africa won 5-0. Tahir was the second-highest wicket-taker in that series, with 10 scalps, which is why he is a certain starter in Saturday’s match despite recently nursing a niggle.A hamstring issue kept Tahir out of two of the three England games but instead of giving him a little more time to rest and use their other option Keshav Maharaj – who made his debut at the Ageas Bowl – South Africa will bring Tahir straight back into the mix.”Imran is fit and he’s our No. 1 bowler, our No. 1 spin bowler. And Keshav understands his role when it comes to that,” de Villiers said. “There might be a time in the tournament where we might use a different strategy, if we play against a certain opposition or on a certain field. But for tomorrow, Imran is the No. 1 pick.”It is unusual times for South Africa because they are certain of their spin options but unsure of their pace pack and the England series would only have posed more questions. All four allrounders played at some point in the series and Wayne Parnell had the most convincing figures after an impressive outing at Lord’s where he made the new ball swing. He was also the leading wicket-taker in the Sri Lanka series, with 11 wickets at 17.36, and has been the most successful opening partner to Rabada, which suggests he has sealed a spot for now.That leaves South Africa with a choice between one or two of Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius. The latter only played once against England so it may just be down to Morris and Phehlukwayo; choosing between the experience of someone who has played at a major tournament in the past and the excitement of someone who has none of the baggage.Morris was batting when South Africa failed to chase of 10 off 10 in Southampton, but he has finished games before – the one against England in Cape Town early last year being a stand-out. Phehlukwayo has done the same, against Australia in Durban and New Zealand in Hamilton but he also stumbled in that same series.Finishers like the two of them tend to need a little bit of luck along with everything else. South Africa will need some too – perhaps not now, in the opening jousts which they go into with confidence – but later when the pressure is on. And they need to make sure they have prepared properly for that, especially in terms of personnel.Their series defeat to England suggests there remains some fine-tuning required and de Villiers admitted they used the three matches to try and smooth things out, perhaps without success. What they did learn was that no matter which combination they chose, they remained competitive and for now, that should be enough.”If you go into a series thinking that you want to play all 15 players, you’re not really focusing on just winning that series because your mind is a little bit elsewhere, so I think that’s what happened,” he said. “But I think we peaked really well throughout that series, and ended up looking back thinking that, you know what, we actually could have won that series, easily, which is a great boost of confidence for us, keeping in mind that we played 15 players and it was a bit of a warm-up for the Champions Trophy.”

CSA T20 round-up: Boland and Knights are yet to get off the mark

Firdose Moonda11-Feb-2022North West have emerged as frontrunners at the CSA T20 tournament with two victories, including a bonus-point win, in the opening week of the tournament. They are a point ahead of Western Province, who also triumphed in both their matches, and five clear of the Dolphins, Lions, Titans and Warriors, all of whom won one each. Boland and the Knights are yet to register a win. Here are the highlights from the first round:North-West crush troubled KnightsAfter the semi-final between these two teams in the CSA T20 knockout earlier in the season was washed out, with the Knights advancing to the final and eventually claiming the trophy, North West exacted sweet revenge with an eight-wicket victory on Thursday. North West’s attack, which included ODI allrounder Dwaine Pretorius (1/13) and two-time Test cap Senuran Muthusamy (2/8), kept the Knights to 95 for 9 in 20 overs. Wesley Marshall’s 29-ball 43 and an opening stand of 69 ensured the result was never in doubt. Pretorius finished things off in the 11th over, to give North West an eight-wicket win.The loss speaks to broader problems for the Knights, who are struggling without marquee batter Rilee Rossouw, who is at the PSL. They hold the two lowest first-innings scores in the competition so far, after their opening match against the Dolphins saw them post just 128 for 5. All eyes will be on Raynard van Tonder, Farhaan Behardien and Pite van Biljon to see if Knights improve next week.North West, meanwhile, also beat their neighbours, the Lions, by defending 136. Their most successful bowler so far is left-arm spinner Johannes Diseko, who is the joint-leading wicket-taker and has the best economy rate among the leading 10 bowlers. De Kock, Levi, Lubbe in the runs His retirement from Test cricket means Quinton de Kock is not with the national side in New Zealand and available for the Titans as he focuses solely on white-ball fixtures. His campaign began with a first ball duck against the Warriors, who went on to defend 163 on the opening day. But de Kock quickly turned things around, scoring 72 off 61 balls and sharing in a 106-run opening stand with Gihahn Cloete to help Titans get to 158 for 2 against Boland. In what was the game of the round, Janneman and Pieter Malan got Boland off to a good start with 69 runs inside eight overs, then lost 3 for 29 before Under-19 World Cup returnee Michael Copeland hit a 39-ball 33. But then they lost three wickets for two runs and finally fell three runs short of victory. Junior Dala took two wickets in three balls in the penultimate over to leave Ayabulele Gqamane 11 to defend in the last over.Boland’s week went poorly after they also lost to Western Province, who chased 143 with little trouble. Richard Levi set the tone with 67 from 39 balls and then helped Western Province to victory over the Warriors as well when his 17-ball 40 provided the foundation to chase the highest total of the week: 164. Levi is the second highest run-scorer in the competition, with the highest strike rate.Wihan Lubbe leads the run-charts, 18 ahead of Levi, with two half-centuries. He scored 69* against Western Province and 56, in a winning cause, against the Titans.

Kusal Perera made a roaring return to Sri Lankan colours, cracking 77 off 53 balls to lead the hosts on a successful hunt of Bangladesh’s 155 for 6

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Apr-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsUpul Tharanga and Kusal Perera struck a 65-run opening stand•Associated Press

Kusal Perera made a roaring return to Sri Lankan colours, cracking 77 off 53 balls to lead the hosts on a successful hunt of Bangladesh’s 155 for 6. That Sri Lanka had so few to chase was partly the work of Sri Lanka’s bowlers, who made breakthroughs whenever a partnership threatened, though they were helped to that end by off-colour Bangladesh batting.Mashrafe Mortaza, who as it turned out, was playing his penultimate game in the format, was by a distance the visitors’ best bowler. He claimed 2 for 32 from his four overs, and only one other bowler – Taskin Ahmed – mustered a breakthrough. Sri Lanka sauntered to the target with seven balls and six wickets to spare.This match was Kusal’s first international since his unseemly Test outing in Port Elizabeth, for which he was dropped from the Test XI, then subsequently axed from the limited-overs squads altogether. Having returned to national reckoning via good innings for Sri Lanka A, Kusal outlined his value to Sri Lanka in an innings that showcased a little batting nous as well as characteristic brutality. The bludgeoned drives and whipped pick-up shots over midwicket did eventually come, but not before he had laid low for the first four overs; and the big shots were, in any case, well devised as well as nicely executed. Instead of trying to clear fielders as Kusal often does, he strove to hit even his most ambitious shots into gaps.

Over-rate fine for Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka were found to be one over short of their target in the first T20I, and have been fined by the ICC. While captain Upul Tharanga was fined 20% of his match fee, the rest of the team were fined 10%.

Having made only 5 off his first eight balls, Kusal smoked four fours and a six off his next seven, to help move Sri Lanka to 57 for none at the end of the Powerplay. Upul Tharanga, who had given the innings its initial impetus, departed in the seventh over, but Kusal stayed long enough to almost see the chase through. He reached his fifty off 31 balls, and when he fell in the penultimate over, Sri Lanka needed only nine runs, which they would proceed to gather over the next four balls. Seekkuge Prasanna was not out with 22 off 12 at the close.Though their bowlers responded poorly to Kusal’s shellacking, Bangladesh may reflect that it was with the bat that they made the more substantial mistakes. They had flown to 57 for 1 after five overs, for example, but then Sabbir Rahman ran a poor line to get himself run out, and Soumya Sarkar holed out in the same Vikum Sanjaya over. Suddenly, at 57 for 3, all that momentum they had developed was surrendered.Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan fell playing expansive shots to slow bowlers, who should, in fact, have been less effective on this track, which retained a little grass and had been rolled until hard. Mosaddek Hossain and Mahmudullah put on 57 off 42 together to lift their side from 82 for 5, but could not quite crack enough runs through the back-end of the innings to lift Bangladesh to a winning score.Lasith Malinga was especially good through this period, giving away seven and eight in his last two overs, in which he took the wicket of Mahmudullah with a searing yorker, having also done the same to Tamim Iqbal with the second ball of the match.Rain before play had delayed the start by 45 minutes, but no overs were lost.

Seeing out Graeme Cremer and staying positive will reverse a little pressure and bring a mammoth 388 target within reach, according to Dimuth Karunaratne

Andrew Fidel Fernando17-Jul-2017Seeing out Graeme Cremer and staying positive will reverse a little pressure and bring a mammoth 388 target within reach, according to Dimuth Karunaratne. The opener made 49 to help set the tone for the innings.Zimbabwe claimed his wicket and two others with balls that took substantial turn. The delivery that dismissed Karunaratne spun more than any other in the match, hitting the fast bowlers’ footmarks and darting alarmingly into his offstump. Kusal Mendis, who had also been positive at the crease, and Angelo Mathews, are the overnight pair.”I do think we can make it,” Karunaratne said. “We have already scored 170 for three wickets and we need only 218 more. We’ve also batted out the period when he ball is hard and does a little bit more. All Zimbabwe have now is the support from that rough.”Angie and Kusal are set now. If those two guys keep on batting for an hour or more tomorrow morning, they can get set again. If that happens, I don’t think it’s easy to get them out unless we do something silly.”Mendis, whose 60 has come off 85 deliveries, was busy at the crease, and used his powerful flat sweep shot to good effect. Mathews has already used the reverse-sweep himself, during his 33-ball 17. Both those options may be key to manipulating the field.”They’re bowling on the leg side with more fielders. So we need to have a plan to change that field may be playing a reverse sweep,” he said. “If we do that, we will be able to put some runs on the board quickly.”If we just to survive, we’re losing the opportunity to win the match. We need to be positive. When another 60 to 70 runs are scored, I think they will spread out the field. Then we can get the single and have a chance. We have to put them under pressure.”Cremer, who had claimed a five-wicket haul in the first innings, appears the key figure in the opposition attack. He has already bowled 58.3 overs in the match, however, and Sri Lanka may have hopes of tiring him out, as they had once done with Yasir Shah, in Pallekele. Sean Williams was the other wicket-taker on Monday.”Cremer is bowling in good areas and turning it well. As a wrist spinner, he gets a lot out of the surface. What Sean doing is that he pegs the batsman down and forces him to commit a mistake against Cremer. Other than those two, I don’t think there will be a huge threat. The reality is that those two cannot keep bowling right throughout the day.”

Persistent rain ruled out any chance of play in the second and third sessions after Pakistan, having chosen an all-seam attack on a green pitch, picked up two New Zealand wickets after winning the toss

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy24-Nov-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThe cut featured prominently among Ross Taylor’s six fours•Getty Images

Persistent rain ruled out any chance of play in the second and third sessions after Pakistan, having chosen an all-seam attack on a green pitch, picked up two New Zealand wickets after winning the toss. New Zealand batted positively, going after anything marginally loose, and scored 77 runs in 21 overs before rain forced an early lunch, 15 minutes before schedule. With intermittent showers continuing to afflict Seddon Park, umpires called off play at 4pm.It left the Test match suspended in an interesting though still embryonic position with Jeet Raval, carrying on from his impressive debut in Christchurch, batting on 35 and Ross Taylor, who seemed unbothered by the pterygium in his left eye, on 29 off 20 balls.Taylor looked far more assured than he had done in either South Africa or India, lining up in a more side-on stance than normal, and, perhaps as a consequence, lifting his bat up behind him rather than out towards gully as is usually the case, allowing it to come down straighter in defence while having no adverse effect on his traditional strength, the square-cut. Of the six fours he hit, five came off this shot.This was also because Pakistan bowled too short and too wide at him, and in general weren’t as accurate as the conditions demanded. Sohail Khan and Wahab Riaz were particularly guilty of spraying the ball around, while Imran Khan, returning to the Test line-up after more than a year, looked rusty, often slanting the ball too wide of off stump to make Raval play.It was a curious unraveling after Mohammad Amir had begun as well as he possibly could have, every ball of his first over tight on off stump, curling away from a good length or just short of it, forcing the two left-handed openers to play, and produced four edges and two plays-and-misses. Two of the edges carried to Sami Aslam at first slip. He dropped the first, at knee height while falling to his left, to reprieve Raval, and caught the second, to send back Tom Latham for a first-ball duck.Aside from that let-off and a couple of loose drives away from his body, Raval showed impressive judgment outside off, particularly against the right-armers angling the ball across him. He profited particularly from nudges off his legs and pulls, the latter shot rather effective on a pitch where the ball came through with true bounce but not a lot of pace.Kane Williamson looked in excellent touch in his 42-ball stay at the crease, easing two effortless drives through the off side when Amir overpitched, and defending with the softest hands in the game. When Amir dropped a difficult return catch in the fifth over of the morning, off a firmly hit straight drive, it looked as if Williamson might go on and make a substantial score, but it wasn’t to be, as he fell to Sohail after a Pakistan review.Getting the ball to nibble in from outside off stump, Sohail produced a tentative, half-forward poke, and the bowler and all the fielders behind the wicket went up instinctively when they heard a click through to the keeper. Simon Fry gave it not out on the field, and Ian Gould, the third umpire, overturned his decision; it seemed a tight call to make. HotSpot did not register an edge, and the Real-Time Snickometer seemed to show a spike an instant the ball passed his inside edge, suggesting it may have hit his elbow. Some of the TV commentators, however, said they heard a double-noise, indicating the ball may have kissed the edge and then hit Williamson’s elbow.

Hosts recover from 100 for 5 to end the day 34 runs ahead of visitors

Danyal Rasool13-Aug-2021Stumps West Indies and Pakistan’s last Test match four years ago was a classic, and if the events at Sabina Park are anything to go by, we may be in for another one. On an attritional day of Test cricket that didn’t swing as much as it just gently swayed, the two teams continue to be neck-and-neck. Simple math would dictate the hosts have the edge, leading as they do by 34 runs with two wickets still to spare, but with Yasir Shah in the fourth innings a historically significant factor, all bets are off.Kraigg Brathwaite (97) dominated the day, surviving almost through to the end after having to settle nerves after the frenetic finish of last night. He saw off each of Pakistan’s pace bowlers, the first new ball, a dangerous middle order collapse, the introduction of Yasir and two full sessions. But then it all changed as West Indies’ most threatening partnership – 95 between the captain and his predecessor was broken.Jason Holder was playing with delightful fluidity as his side pushed past 150 and bore down on Pakistan’s first innings score ominously. Yasir, not nearly at his best, was dispatched to the boundary repeatedly, and soon enough, a backfoot punch off Hasan Ali got Holder to his 11th half century. Eight runs later, though, he was gone, a victim of Faheem Ashraf’s subtle seam movement.Brathwaite, of course, remained and was even eyeing up a personal three-figure score – ideally before having to face the new ball in darkening conditions. It is hard to say if that played a role in his decision to hare back for a couple down to fine leg, taking on Hasan, whose direct hit caught the opener well short of his ground. He had departed three runs shy of what would have been a splendid hundred, with the wicket coming at a time when West Indies had firm control over the Test.Once Brathwaite fell, the visitors had a real opening, but wayward lines with the new ball, particularly from Shaheen Afridi, saw the lower order continue to eke out runs as Joshua Da Silva manipulated the strike intelligently. By the time the umpires began worrying about the light, West Indies already had a decent lead they will be keen to build on tomorrow.In overcast conditions in the morning, Mohammad Abbas had picked up exactly where he left off the previous day and was the pick of the bowlers, peppering the corridor of uncertainty between a good and full length. Roston Chase and Brathwaite had to be especially sure of their footwork, with the seam movement Abbas was generating an additional challenge.Afridi let his high standards dip somewhat, beginning with two leg-side deliveries that trickled away for four leg-byes each. It settled West Indies’ nerves, and once Chase drove Abbas straight down the ground, the runs off the bat became more frequent. Before long, they had brought up a half-century stand.But just as West Indies looked poised to take control, Pakistan struck. Hasan, who had been testing the pair in his first three overs, especially when they got on the front foot, coaxed an expansive front-foot drive from Chase that wasn’t really on. It produced a tickle through to Mohammad Rizwan, with an anguished look from the batter revealing quite how ordinary the shot was.The second session was a dogged, scrappy affair that – one sensational over from Afridi aside – West Indies negotiated with relative conviction. The problem for them, though, was that this time would be defined by four balls from Afridi more than anything any batter could manage.Just after West Indies brought up their hundred, Pakistan broke through with the wicket they had threatened before lunch. Jermaine Blackwood’s punchy counter-attacking knock might have been evocative of Rizwan’s cameo on the first day but it wasn’t nearly as assured, with all four of his boundaries coming off shots he wasn’t in control of. Afridi landed one in the slot for him to go after, but with the ball wobbling in the air, Blackwood only managed to toe-end it to Abbas at long-on. The very next ball, Kyle Mayers was struck full on the pad, and found himself departing for a golden duck.It might have gotten worse for West Indies. Two balls later, the irrepressible Afridi had Holder trapped in front, with the umpire raising the finger. The allrounder would survive by the barest of margins, with the review showing the ball pitching just outside leg stump.Holder understood the magnitude of the moment, and dug in. He did not score until a straight drive off his 12th delivery, and didn’t score again for 22 more balls. He knew the chance would eventually come, and launched into a wayward Yasir over towards the back-end of the session.Brathwaite, meanwhile, was pretty much batting on a different surface. His patience was exemplary, his shot selection immaculate. When Pakistan appeared to be having one of their purple patches, he had the awareness to retreat completely into his shell and place an even greater value on his wicket, and with Holder keeping the scoring ticking over at the other end, West Indies began to take control.The quick departure of both let Pakistan back in, though, and it feels increasingly as if it might all come down to fine margins again. Just as it did in 2017.