KARACHI, 29 November 2006 — The star of Pakistan’s win in the first Test, Umar Gul rocked the West Indies top order batting to restrict the visitors to 191 for six in the first innings in reply to Pakistan’s 304 all out at close of the second day’s play in the third and final Test here yesterday.

Had it not been for a gritty, battling, unbeaten knock of 77 by opener Daren Ganga, the visitors would have been in a worse situation. They trail by 113 runs with four first innings wickets in hand with the hope that like Pakistan, their tail-enders would continue the fight back when play resumes on the third day, today.

Pakistan have made a strong comeback in the game and have definitely snatched the initiative which West Indies had taken by restricting Pakistan’s first innings to 257 for seven on the first day.

After Gul had sent back the cream of West Indies batting— Chris Gayle (40), Brian Lara (0) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (0) — within the span of two overs in the post-lunch session, Danish Kaneria struck three telling blows. He accounted for Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, who scored a breezy 36 off 49 balls before tea interval, and wrapped up the remaining two specialist batsmen — Renaku Morton (21) and Dwayne Bravo (8) in the last session of the day’s play. It was Gul who got the breakthrough for Pakistan after Gayle and Ganga had added 51 runs for the opening stand. Gayle started at a frenetic pace and raced to 40 from 54 balls when Gul was called for the second spell of the innings. But this time the ball was old and had started to take reverse swing. Gayle mistimed Gul’s second ball of the first over to mid on where Abdul Razzaq held a comfortable catch. Gul’s fourth delivery of the same over was a beauty, which left Lara shocked and his wicket shattered. In his next over Gul had the out of form Sarwan clueless with a swinging yorker. The visitors had slumped from 51 without loss to 51 for three. Chanderpaul and Ganga — who was watching the devastation from the other end — tried to hold together and rebuild the innings. The two added 63 precious runs for the fourth wicket before Kaneria dismissed the left-handed batsman to make it 114 for 4. At tea Morton and Ganga had taken the score to 131 for 4.

In an inspired spell of quality spin bowling Kaneria dislodged first Morton and then Bravo to sent the visitors reeling at 191 for 6 before play had to be called of due bad light with four over remaining to be bowled. Bravo edged a Kaneria googly which was brilliantly held by keeper Kamran Akmal.

Imran Farhat, who had earlier in the day dropped Gayle when he was 12, made amends for his failure as he took two brilliant catches at forward short leg position to dismiss Chanderpaul and Morton. Gul, who had starred in Pakistan’s nine-wicket win in the Lahore Test, finished the day with 3 for 49 and Kaneria 3 for 48. With Ganga batting at 77 off 214 balls along with Denesh Ramdin (0), West Indies can still hope to make a match out of it.

Earlier, the home team’s first innings folded at 304, tail-enders Gul and Kaneria adding a useful 32 runs for the last wicket, thanks to a punchy knock of 26 by Gul. Resuming at the overnight 257 for seven, Pakistan lost Shahid Nazir early on when the total was 265. Nazir was bowled by Corey Collymore giving the fast bowler his third wicket of the match. Six runs later, Akmal, last of the recognized batsmen, was removed by Daren Powell after he had made a useful 31. Gul however played a spirited knock of 26, which included five boundaries off 44 balls, before falling to Powell, who finished with two wickets. For West Indies, Collymore picked three for 57, Powell and Dwayne Bravo got two wickets each and Jerome Taylor and Daren Ganga one each.

Bangladesh Beat Zimbabwe in

Maiden Twenty-20 International

AFP adds from Khulna, Bangladesh, Mashrafe Mortaza and Abdur Razzak helped Bangladesh defeat Zimbabwe by 43 runs in a one-off Twenty-20 cricket international yesterday.

All-rounder Mortaza slammed a brisk 36 and left-arm spinner Razzak bagged 3-15 as Bangladesh comfortably won what was the maiden Twenty-20 International for both teams. Put in to bat, Bangladesh set a target of 167 for the visitors, who folded up for 123 in exactly 20 overs.

Left-hander Sean Williams (38) and Hamilton Masakadza (35) shared in a 54-run stand for the fourth wicket for Zimbabwe, but Razzak bagged three crucial wickets including Masakadza’s scalp.

Earlier, Bangladesh scored at a brisk pace to reach 166 in 19.5 overs. Mortaza, coming in at number eight, scored 36 off 26 balls while Aftab Ahmed (28), Saqibul Hasan (26) and Shahriar Nafees (25) were the others to chip in.

Brief scores: Bangladesh 166 in 19.5 overs (Mashrafe Mortaza 36, Aftab Ahmed 28, Saqibul Hasan 26, Shahriar Nafees 25, Prosper Utseya 3-25) beat Zimbabwe 123 in 20 overs (Sean Williams 38, Hamilton Masakadza 35, Abdur Razzak 3-15, Shahadat Hossain 2-22).