West Indies selection chairman Clyde Butts reckoned Devon Smith would not, “start against spin probably in a Test match,” and would get time to settle.
But Smith’s one-day nemesis Mohammad Hafeez shared the new ball with Umar Gul and took just 16 balls to remove the opener – bowled between bat and pad.
From the very start then, the homesters were outthought and outplayed by their Pakistani opponents on the first day of this opening Digicel Test match at the Guyana National Stadium.
The West Indies’ struggles against spin continued – Saeed Ajmal (29-12-63-4) and Abdur Rehman (26-9-46-2) in particular reducing them to 209 for nine by the end of play.
Their captain Misbah ul-Haq will be pleased with all five of his bowlers whose concerted pressure took away any advantage ul-Haq’s counterpart Darren Sammy might have gained by winning the toss.
None of the Windies’ best laid plans bore fruit yesterday. And on a surface that is assisting the bowlers, they may also come to regret not playing the extra one here, and further, not having the option of another spinner. For it was spin that imprisoned them again.
Fast bowler Fidel Edwards and batsman Marlon Samuels were the two who were omitted from the final XI. But the extra batsman did not prove an advantage, at least in the first innings.
Smith’s loose defensive prod at a Hafeez delivery which went straight on would not have pleased batting consultant Desmond Haynes. And “Desi” would have found little else to be satisfied with in the way his charges handled the variations of the Pakistani spin trio.
Maybe this was a case for the police department’s CID. The Windies batsmen certainly were unable to solve the mystery. From Smith (13), to Shivnarine Chanderpaul (27), flummoxed by an Ajmal doosra, the batsmen simply found themselves unable to dictate the pace of the game. They all had their moments of difficulty despite all but two getting into double figures.
Opener Lendl Simmons fought hardest for his highest score in four Tests, 49 (191 minutes, three fours, one six); a good innings played in two parts because of injury. A painful blow on the left knee from left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz when he had reached 41 forced him from the play with the West Indies total on 81 for two early in the second session. He and Darren Bravo – who needed 85 balls to get 25 – stabilised the early part of the innings with a second-wicket partnership of 56, the best of the innings so far.
Bravo, never really fluent, left with the score on 71, lbw to a Riaz inswinger which he unsuccessfully tried to get overturned via the umpire decision review system (UDRS). And by the time Simmons was well enough to return to the crease with his bruised knee and Bravo as runner – replacing his skipper Sammy – the Windies had declined to 159 for six.
Hometown favourites Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan fashioned a third-wicket stand of 46 that took the score to 126 before a becalmed Sarwan (23 runs – 79 balls, two fours) was adjudged caught by debutant wicketkeeper Mohammad Salman on review as he rashly cut at left-armer Rehman. Umpire Tony Hill initially gave the batsman the benefit of his doubt.
With Sarwan went perhaps the last chance for the Windies to counter-attack. Chanderpaul, his controversial last couple weeks still fresh in mind, was not going to be the aggressor in his first serious innings since the World Cup. But now the rot set in.
Vice-captain Brendan Nash and wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh hardly troubled the scorers as off-spinner Ajmal ambushed the lower middle order, removing them both via the lbw route. And Sammy cannot be proud of holing out at mid-on after having hit the previous ball from Rehman over the midwicket boundary.
Simmons, who now came back out, stuck around for another half-hour or so, in which time he saw the impressive Ajmal’s complete deception of Chanderpaul (four fours, 83 balls). The off-spinner drew the veteran batsman forward and whipped the doosra between bat and pad. Simmons eventually became Ajmal’s fourth victim of the day, lbw stretching forward to a ball that would have struck off-stump.
The day’s action would have made uncomfortable viewing for consultant Haynes, coach Ottis Gibson and manager Richie Richardson.
All three went pitch-side at the close, scrutinising a surface that looks sure to produce a result inside the scheduled five days.
The dogged resistance of last pair Kemar Roach and debutant Devendra Bishoo would have heartened them.
Each tail-ender reached double figures in a stand that has already contributed a valuable 11 runs.