da betway： St
da realsbet： Tony Cozier30-May-2000St. John’s – It was as close, tense and topsy-turvy as they come andit took a captain’s innings of nerveless, single-minded determination,combined with a helping of necessary luck, to resolve it. Jimmy Adams,in his fifth Test at the helm of a team his leadership hasrevitalised, kept his head and his wicket through three-and-a-quarterhours of unrelenting pressure yesterday to guide the West Indies tovictory over Pakistan by one wicket in the third and final Test.Last man Courtney Walsh, unabashed holder of the record number ofducks in Test cricket but an old hand in such situations, stayed withAdams for an hour-and-a-quarter, surviving 24 balls to the delight ofthe cheering, flag-waving stands as the final 19 runs were eeked outin a match that remained in the balance throughout.When they scampered the decisive run on Adams’ bat-pad push into thecovers off Wasim Akram half-an-hour after lunch, the captain raisedhis hands to the heavens, broke into a smile for the first time in thefive-and-a-half hours he had been in the middle and, physically andemotionally drained by the effort, lay flat out on the grass.Almost immediately he was smothered under a heap of his jubilantplayers, celebrating a triumph that clinched the threematch series1-0 and kept intact the record of never losing a series in theCaribbean to Pakistan.It was a replay of the scenes that followed a similarly pulsating,one-wicket triumph over Australia at Kensington Oval just over a yearago, also engineered by a left-handed captain who also had Walsh ashis partner at the finish.Brian Lara’s breathtaking strokeplay then may have been utterlydifferent in execution to Adams’, but both innings accurately typifiedthe two players.The Pakistanis trudged from the ground in the deep disappointment feltby all sportsmen in such circumstances. They had muffed two glaringrun-out chances and justifiably believed they would have won but foran umpiring error.Their frustration would have been even even more crushing.They had entered the match with the shadow of Judge Malik Qayyumísmatch-fixing report hanging over their four more senior players, WasimAkram, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mushtaq Ahmed and Waqar Younis.Something to proveIt was obvious they had something to prove, none more so than Akram,the 33-year-old veteran of 95 Tests, whose 11 wickets for 110 from56.2 tireless overs were gained by high quality left-arm swingbowling.His duel with Adams was a fascinating battle within a battle, Testcricket at its best within one of the finest of Tests.Adams, 15 at the start with the West Indies 72 away from their goal at144 for four, kept going through 35.3 overs yesterday, 62.5 all toldfor 48. Such was his defiant defence that he didn’t hit one boundaryoff the 212 balls he received.The loss of Ramnaresh Sarwan in the day’s sixth over, lbw to Akram’sdangerous inswing as he was in the first innings, meant theresponsibility rested wholly and almost solely on Adams.Not trusting his remaining partners to cope, he shielded them bytaking as much of the strike as he could from Akram, who bowled 17.3tireless overs, in three spells from either end, to add to his 12.3 ofthe previous day.Sticking unwaveringly to his calculated plan, Adams consistentlyrefused blatant singles to deep-set fields to ensure Akram wouldn’tget at the shaky tail.While he faced 141 balls on the day, the others only had to deal with78, mostly from spinners Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq who sentdown 13 overs between them. Strangely, Moin didn’t call at all onWaqar, a bowler with close to 300 Test wickets. Adams’ strategyindirectly led to Ridley Jacobs’ narrow run-out by Yousaf Youhana’squick throw to Moin on Adams’ sweep to short fine-leg. Nor could itprotect Franklyn Rose, Ambrose and King forever. But it was vindicatedby the result.Rose, whose one and only ball from Akram brought a huge lbw appeal,pulled Mushtaq for four, but his attempted six hit an over later wasagainst the breeze to the longest part of the boundary and carriedonly as far as Akram at long-on.Ambrose’s blow over midwicket off Mushtaq found its target,Independence Avenue outside the ground, but when he was lbw to Saqlainthe last ball before lunch and Akram collected his 11th wicket of thematch by hitting King’s unprotected off-stump, the balance of aconstantly fluctuating match had swung in Pakistan’s favour.Final twistThere was another final twist to come but it would not have reachedthat stage but for Pakistani slackness in the field and by an umpiringdecision that the ubiqitous television cameras showed to be a mistake.Both reflected the general stress that seemed to affect everyoneexcept Adams and Walsh. With 16 still needed, Walsh lunged forward tohis second ball from off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq, bat locked close topad.Imran Nazir at forward short-leg caught the rebound and he, wicketkeeper and captain Moin Khan and the close fielders bellowed an appealthat could have been heard in Montserrat.Even after umpire Doug Cowie, a New Zealander and the ICC appointeestanding for the first time in the Caribbean, ruled not out, thePakistanis were demanding the decision. The television replays showedthey had a point for the bat’s inside edge, as well as the pad, wereinvolved.Earlier, with 20 required, the Pakistanis were also certain Adams hadsnicked Akram to Moin but umpire Billy Doctrove, in his debut Test,disagreed. The replays, this time, were not as conclusive as theylater were.SquanderedTwice, almost identical, straightforward run-out chances weresquandered. The first made little difference, the second would havegiven Pakistan victory by 13.Ambrose, in his last Test on his home ground, had just sent Mushtaq’sleg-break out of the ground when he and Adams found themselvestogether at the wicket-keeper’s end and the ball in Imran Nazir’sgrasp at short fine-leg.The return came to Moin who relayed it back to the bowler’s end onlyfor Saqlain Mushtaq to fumble and lose the ball with Ambrose wellshort of his ground.Ambrose was out two runs later, lbw to the last ball before lunch fromSaqlain, with the West Indies still 22 short of victory and only ReonKing and Walsh to come. The lapse seemed immaterial.Pakistan’s next opportunity was decisive.This time, Adams and Walsh were in the same crease after adisagreement over a deflection from Walsh’s pad to short fine-leg.Adams ran, Walsh only did so with Younis Khan’s throw on its way, yetagain, to the unfortunate Saqlain. Again he missed it. It was thematch.The setbacks seemed to rattle the Pakistanis whose effort graduallyfaded. In the end, even Walsh was batting with the panache that henever doubted victory.
