West Indies finally got the better of Pakistan after they beat them by five wickets in the third Test at Sharjah on Thursday. Kraigg Brathwaite played a key role as he and Shane Dowrich remained unbeaten on 60 to take West Indies home. It was their first Test win outside West Indies and Bangladesh since 2007 and also their first win in 14 Test matches.
It was also Jason Holder’s first victory as captain of a fairly young side. Resuming the day on 114 for 5, with 39 runs to win, Brathwaite and Dowrich needed just 7.2 overs to chase the target set by Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Yasir Shah was the Player of the Series for picking up 21 wickets while Brathwaite deservedly won the Player of the Match, with an unbeaten 142 and 60 in the first and second innings, respectively. He became the first opener in the history of Test cricket to remain unbeaten in both innings of a match.
"I've been playing with Shane since secondary school. The plan was to just keep rotating strike and bring the target down. I think we have a good group of young guys. When we go back to first-class cricket, we've to repeat what we've done there to be ready for our next Test series in the Caribbean. It was a tough Test for us as well, Pakistan also played well. We had to work really hard, very happy to come out on top,” said Brathwaite, during the post-match ceremony.
Pakistan won the three-match series 2-1.
Brief scores:
Pakistan 281 (Sami Aslam 74, Misbah-ul-Haq 53; Devendra Bishoo 4/77, Shannon Gabriel 3/67) and 208 (Azhar Ali 91, Sarfraz Ahmed 42; Jason Holder 5/30, Devendra Bishoo 3/46) lost to West Indies 337 (Kraigg Brathwaite 142 not out, Roston Chase 50; Wahab Riaz 5/88, Mohammad Amir 3/71) and 154/5 (Shane Dorwich 60 not out, Kraigg Brathwaite 60 not out; Yasir Shah 3/40, Wahab Riaz 2/46) by five wickets
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