Cricket: W Indies find riposte for Waqar magic: Honours shared in first Test

FULLY in keeping with the events off the field during the past week Pakistan's Test series against the West Indies made a dramatic start at the Queen's Park Oval yesterday.

The Pakistanis, so distressed with the drugs incident against Wasim Akram and three other players in Grenada last week that they could barely bring themselves to continue the tour, might have been further depressed when Richie Richardson won the toss on a hard bone-dry pitch. Their mood improved as they routed the West Indies, choosing to bat first, for 127, but by the close Pakistan's mood would have changed again as they collapsed to 113 for 7.

When Desmond Haynes and Phil Simmons were adding 63 for the first wicket over the first hour and 25 minutes, Richie Richardson's decision seemed to be vindicated.

Even when Simmons edged an intended cut off Ata-ur-Rehman and was caught behind for 27 and Richardson's contorted sweep off leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed resulted in him being bowled off pad and forearm in the space of 20 minutes there was no real suggestion of what was to follow.

The West Indies went into the first interval 83 for 2. Within an hour and a half they were all out for 127, eight wickets tumbling for 42 off 72 deliveries.

Once again the West Indies bowlers bailed their batsmen out. Pakistan were sailing along even more serenely than the West Indies had in the morning at 100 for 2 when Ian Bishop and Curtly Ambrose dramatically intervened to claim five wickets for eight runs from the next 57 deliveries.

The ball kept at disconcertingly uneven heights and will behave even more strangely as the match progresses. The West Indian demise was then initiated, inevitably, by Waqar Younis who accounted for Brian Lara, Carl Hooper and Junior Murray. But the influence of Ata-ur- Rehman, the tall, strong 18-year-old whose only previous Test was on the featherbed of Edgbaston last summer, could not be underestimated.

It was Ata-ur-Rehman who removed Haynes, caught behind from an uncertain push outside off stump in the first over after lunch. Waqar then claimed Lara to a low second slip catch and followed this by beating Hooper and Murray for pace with successive deliveries, both lbw. The West Indies had only the left-handed Keith Arthurton of their specialist batsmen remaining and there was no way out of their troubles.

Pakistan made a hesitant start as Bishop had Ramiz Raja lbw on the back foot just before tea and Courtney Walsh removed Inzamam-ul-Haq similarly at 52. As the left-handed Aamir Sohail and Javed Miandad added 48 in an hour it seemed the West Indies would pay dearly for a bad miss by wicket-keeper Murray off Bishop when Aamir was six. Richardson had turned to the off-spin of Hooper and the afternoon was proceeding quietly when Bishop intervened to change Pakistan's mood.

Aamir was quite spectacularly taken, low and right-handed at second slip by Hooper off Bishop who, in the same over, earned the sixth of the day's seven lbw decisions against the debutant Basit Ali. At the opposite end Ambrose accounted for Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram and Moin Khan to end a remarkable day.

TEST SCOREBOARD

(First day: West Indies won toss)

WEST INDIES - First Innings

D L Haynes c Moin b Ata-ur-Rehman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

P V Simmons c Moin b Ata-ur-Rehman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

* R B Richardson b Mushtaq. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

B C Lara c Aamir Sohail b Waqar Younis. . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

K L T Arthurton run out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

C L Hooper lbw b Waqar Younis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

] J R Murray lbw b Waqar Younis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0

I R Bishop c Inzamam b Ata-ur-Rehman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

C E L Ambrose lbw b Wasim Akram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A C Cummins not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14.

C A Walsh b Wasim Akram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0

Extras (lb3 b6 nb11 w2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Fall: 1-63 2-76 3-85 4-85 5-95 6-95 7-102 8-102 9-127.

Bowling: Wasim Akram 10.2-0-32-2 (nb9); Waqar Younis 11-3-37-3; Ata-ur-Rehman 9-1-28-3 (nb2 w2); Mushtaq Ahmed 8-1-21-1.

PAKISTAN - First Innings

Aamir Sohail c Hooper b Bishop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Ramiz Raja lbw b Bishop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Inzamam-ul-Haq lbw b Walsh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Javed Miandad lbw b Ambrose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Basit Ali lbw b Bishop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0

Asif Mujtaba not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

* Wasim Akram c Richardson b Ambrose. . . . . . . . . . . . .2

] Moin Khan c Murray b Ambrose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0

Waqar Younis not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Extras (lb2 nb6). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Total (for 7). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Fall: 1-17 2-52 3-100 4-100 5-102 6-104 7-108.

To bat: Mushtaq Ahmed, Ata-ur-Rehman.

Bowling: Ambrose 12-4-20-3 (nb2); Bishop 11-5-34-3 (nb1); Walsh 7-4-13-1; Cummings 5-0-19-0 (nb3); Hooper 4-0-25-0.

Umpires: H D Bird and S U Bucknor.