Shafique’s unbeaten 160 puts Pakistan four wickets from a first away Test win since 2023

Pakistan have not won a Test away from home since July 2023. On Tuesday evening in Port of Spain they got within four wickets of ending that, and the man who batted them into the position was the same one who made 201 the last time they managed it.

Abdullah Shafique finished unbeaten on 160 as Pakistan were bowled out for 387, a lead of 43. Sajid Khan then took 4 for 32 and Ali Usman 2 for 29 to leave West Indies 103 for 6 in their second innings at stumps on day three, 60 runs ahead with the last recognised pair yet to come together.

Shafique bats through, Babar goes 12 short

Shafique came in at 34 for 1 in the eighth over and was still there when the innings ended 107 overs later. His 160 took 323 balls and included 15 fours and three sixes. He reached his hundred off 173 balls on day two and then spent the whole of day three grinding, adding 53 runs in a session and a half while wickets fell around him.

Babar Azam made 88 and will not enjoy the replay. He and Shafique had added 183 for the third wicket when Babar pushed into the covers, set off, and was sent back. Brandon King swooped and threw down the stumps at the striker’s end with a direct hit, and Babar was short. He last made a Test hundred in December 2022 against New Zealand at Karachi, and the drought has now survived another 88.

West Indies paid for the moment as well. King fell awkwardly as he released the throw, picked up a lower back problem, and has not batted in the second innings. He is listed to come in at the fall of the next wicket, which is a large asterisk on a lead of 60.

The rest of Pakistan’s innings belonged to Jomel Warrican. The left-arm spinner bowled 46 overs for 6 for 112 and finished the job with three wickets in four balls, two of them bowled. From 370 for 7 Pakistan lost their last three wickets for 17 runs, and the lead stopped at 43.

Sajid and Usman take the evening apart

Forty-three runs is not much on most surfaces. On this one, with the ball turning and bouncing unevenly by the third afternoon, it was enough to change the temperature of the match.

Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Amir Jangoo opened up with 40 in nine overs without much trouble. Then Sajid trapped Chanderpaul lbw for 17, bowled Amir Jangoo for 13, and Ali Usman had Hodge lbw for 34 in the 21st over. Three wickets had gone for 34 runs and West Indies had lost their shape.

Roston Chase and Shai Hope tried to sit on it. They took the score to 99 across 15 overs of very little, until Sajid pinned Hope lbw for 15 off 63 balls. Jayden Seales was promoted up the order with the close approaching and was lbw to Sajid two balls later for nought. Then Chase, who had defended for 45 balls to make 17, lost concentration on the final delivery of the day and chipped a return catch to Ali Usman.

Justin Greaves walks out on Wednesday unbeaten on 1, with Kemar Roach, Shamar Joseph and Warrican behind him and King’s back to worry about. Greaves has been the most reliable West Indian of this series, with 73 in the first innings here and match figures of seven for 39 in the first Test, but he has run out of partners to rely on.

What is actually at stake on day four

West Indies won the opener in Tarouba by 90 runs, so a draw here takes the series. Pakistan need the win outright, and the number hanging over them is eight: eight consecutive away Test defeats, the worst run in their history. The last time they won on the road was at the SSC in Colombo in July 2023, by an innings and 222 runs, in a match where Shafique made 201.

If Pakistan’s spinners clean up the last four wickets in the first hour, the chase should be somewhere near 100 with two days spare. If Greaves finds thirty or forty with the tail and pushes the lead past 150, a fourth-innings target on a wearing Queen’s Park Oval pitch becomes an entirely different conversation. Nobody has batted comfortably for long in this match, and Warrican is waiting.

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