Darren Bravo’s heroics against Pakistan at Dubai in the pink ball test showed that the southpaw was serious to get his side past the winning line and do something seriously extraordinary. In the second innings, West Indies had the chance to create history, as they were given a target of 346 after a typical Pakistani batting performance. After amassing 579 in the first innings, Pakistan was bowled out for 123 in the second innings, as leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo took 8 wickets.
Chasing anything above 175 becomes too difficult in Asia, and the same was apt for Dubai. Bravo, however, was smoothly amassing the runs as he kept the Pakistani bowlers at bay. He counterattacked when the need arose and defended the good deliveries. It needed a moment of brilliance from Yasir Shah to dismiss him. Ultimately, Pakistan ended winning by 56 runs to seal a memorable win.
Post the game, West Indies skipper Jason Holder said that he was proud of Bravo’s efforts. “It was a quality innings and I just mentioned that he batted really well in both the second and first innings,” Holder said. “I think he showed a lot of maturity in both those innings and he spent some time and gave himself a chance to get a score. You could see the determination on his face and in his expressions and his body language was just very positive. Hopefully, he can continue in this vein and we can lean on Darren Bravo in our batting.”
“One thing I am very proud of is the way the guys fought. They came good today and all the bowlers came up with a really good effort on a pitch that didn’t give much assistance to them. I can’t really fault the effort of the guys, it was a very, very good team effort. Unfortunately, we didn’t get over the line and unfortunately we couldn’t save the game but a hell of a lot of positives we can take from the game,” the West Indies captain added.
Holder added, that dropping catches and bowling no balls hurt his side’s chances. “That’s cricket. If you look at it critically, it’s those one or two chances that we missed. In the second innings, Babar Azam getting out off a no-ball. Things like this, if we negate them then we have fewer problems going forward.”