Cricket: West Indies rally

A painstaking unbeaten 121-run fifth-wicket stand between Sherwin Campbell and Shivnarine Chanderpaul rescued the West Indies from a precarious 58 for 4 on the first day of the second Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi yesterday.

When bad light stopped play 13 overs early both batsmen had hit dogged unbeaten half- centuries as the West Indies rallied to 179 for 4 at the close. Campbell scored his second successive half-century, after his 66 in the first Test ,and was unbeaten on 66 off 230 balls. His circumspect half-century took 236 minutes off 170 balls, hitting six fours.

Chanderpaul was more adventurous, hitting his 15th Test half-century off 89 deliveries. The left-hander overtook his partner just before close and finished on 71 off 109 deliveries, hitting 11 fours.

The match started 30 minutes late because of overnight dew which left the outfield quite damp. Wasim Akram's decision to put the visitors in to bat looked to be heading in the right direction as Wasim and Waqar Younis fully exploited the early moisture on a greenish wicket.

The Pakistan pace duo bowled some vicious out-swingers and troubled the opening pair of Campbell and Philo Wallace, who lived dangerously on his debut.

Wasim struck the first blow in his fifth over when Wallace, the 27-year- old Barbados opener , offered no stroke and was ruled out leg before for five.

Stuart Williams then continued his poor form with the bat. The right- handed batsman, who made just four and two in the first Test, flopped yet again when he tried to turn Waqar on the on-side and got a leading edge straight to Mushtaq Ahmed at gully after labouring for 43 balls for his eight runs.

Pakistan looked to have assumed total command when they then got rid off both Brian Lara and Carl Hooper in the space of seven deliveries. Lara had hit two classical fours through the covers off Waqar before he fell on the ground only to see his leg stump being uprooted by a marvellous in-swinging yorker from Waqar.

Azhar Mahmood, who hit a century on his debut against South Africa last month, then found the edge of Hooper's bat, Moin Khan taking a fine catch behind the wickets as West Indies slumped to 58 for 4.

But then Chanderpaul and Campbell stood firm and although Wasim brought on Mushtaq Ahmed, late in the second session, Campbell and Chanderpaul negotiated the leg-spinner's 13-over spell.

WEST INDIES - First Innings

S L Campbell not out 66

P A Wallace lbw b Wasim 5

S C Williams c Mushtaq b Waqar 8

B C Lara b Waqar 15

C L Hooper c Moin b Azhar 0

S Chanderpaul not out 71

Extras (b1, lb8, nb5) 14

Total (for 4, 70 overs) 179

Fall 1-15, 2-37, 3-53, 4-58,

To bat D Williams, I R Bishop, C E L Ambrose, F A Rose, *C A Walsh

Bowling Wasim Akram 16-6-27-1, Waqar Younis 19-3-67-2, Shoaib Akhter 9-2-23-0, Azhar Mahmood 13-6-22-1, Mushtaq Ahmed 13-3-31-0.

PAKISTAN: *Wasim Akram, Saeed Anwar, Aamir Sohail, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Ejaz Ahmed, Muhammad Wasim, Moin Khan, Azhar Mahmood, Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmed, Shoaib Akhtar.

Umpires: D Shepherd (Eng) and Javed Akhtar (Pakistan).