BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, 29 May 2005 — West Indies captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul completed his 14th Test hundred as his side was dismissed for 371 in their second innings yesterday to set Pakistan 573 to win the first Test.
Chanderpaul was undefeated on 153, his first Test hundred against Pakistan, when his side was bowled out about five minutes before the scheduled tea break.
The 30-year-old left-hander hit 10 fours and two sixes from 254 balls in five and three-quarter hours of dogged batting that helped his team tighten their grip on the match, and puts them in a position to force for their first Test victory in just over a year.
Chanderpaul swept leg-spin bowler Danish Kaneria to fine leg for two runs to reach his hundred, and then pulled a short ball from Rana Naveed ul-Hasan, armed with the second new ball, over mid wicket for three to reach 150.
Chanderpaul farmed most of the bowling with the West Indies tailend, after he added 134 for the fifth wicket with Wavell Hinds, who was dismissed on the stroke of lunch.
After the interval, Pakistan gained early success when Courtney Browne continued to struggle with the bat and was caught behind off Shahid Afridi for one.
Daren Powell came to the wicket and added 33 with Chanderpaul to frustrate the Pakistanis before Rana bowled him for five.
Fidel Edwards added more insult when he spent close to an hour with Chanderpaul to raise 46 for the eighth wicket, but Shabbir Ahmed, whose bowling action continues to the subject of much discussion, had him caught behind his highest Test score of 20 fencing a bouncer.
There was little resistance from Reon King, who Shabbir bowled for five, and Corey Collymore, who Abdul Razzaq trapped lbw for a duck, to bring the West Indies innings to a close.
Before lunch, Chanderpaul was eyeing his hundred, but the wicket of Hinds left West Indies on 271 for five at lunch.
After West Indies continued from their bedtime position of 168 for four, Hinds had enjoyed a bit of fortune on 21, when Kaneria dropped a return catch, but the leg-spin bowler had the last laugh when he bowled him just before lunch.
Hinds struck half-dozen boundaries from 129 balls in just under two and three-quarter hours.
West Indies, who were beaten 2-0 at home by South Africa in their most recent Test series, have won just one Test in their last 18 matches against lowly Bangladesh.
Pakistan have never won a Test at Bridgetown, much less a Test series in the Caribbean, on five previous trips.
This is the first Test in a series of two, with the next match starting at Kingston’s Sabina Park on Friday, June 3.
