Pakistan vs West Indies, 1st Test at Multan, PAK vs WI, Jan 17 2025 - Ball by Ball Commentary

That's that from Multan. Danyal is working hard on his report and post-match pieces which should be in soon. Thanks for tuning in. The second Test will start from Saturday, January 25 and we will be live nice and early for that. Till then, on behalf of Hemant and Sudeep, this is me Ashish signing off. Ciao!

Here are few stat nuggets, courtesy of Sampath Bandarupalli:

1) 1064 balls in Multan makes it the shortest completed men's Test in Pakistan

2) The 647 runs scored in the match are the third fewest in a men's Test in Asia where all 40 wickets fell

3) It is also the fourth fewest aggregate in any men's Test since 1980 where 40 wickets fell

Finally, the Pakistan captain, Shan Masood: [Pitch] As long as we get 20 wickets and are able to put in a good performance, we will be happy. The spinners were clinical and Abrar along with Noman and Sajid was great. [On the Shakeel-Rizwan stand] It was very important. We did not know whether in these conditions the ball would spin as it is cold, not like during the England Tests, when it was hot. We lost four wickets through some quality seam. But that partnership... before the day of the Test we sat down and said the set batters should stay long. And that's what Saud and Rixzwan did. [Going forward...] It is hard out there. Batting was hard. We need to add more runs with the last few wickets. In the second innings, we folded cheaply. There are improvements to be made. When you win, you can go on a happy ride and be happy. But we can't do that.

The West Indies captain, Kraigg Braithwaite: The batters didn't play as well as they should have. [Positives?] We will take a look at how Warrican bowled. As spinners we should take a look at that. He was bringing the batters forward. We saw how Alick played. He swept it on both sides. [Plan going forward] We just have to be brave. We have got one more Test and we have to believe in ourselves. It is important to be positive on these types of pitches. We should still trust our defence. We should show intent, but we should look at Alick. If we can bring it together batting and bowling wise, we can come out on top. [On Jayden Seales] Jayden will be a legend for sure. I can see 300 Test wickets for sure. One of the best I have seen in the subcontinent. He is a star, as simple as that

Sajid Khan is the player of the match: [Performance] The pitch was great. The setup has been great. The special man of the match is Rizwan and Shakeel, and Shan in the second innings. The team is playing together and it is great. [On bowling in turning conditions] The wicket had a lot of turn and bounce. The spin bowling coach spoke to me and in the second innings, I bowled a little slower and did not leak too many runs. [On Noman] he discusses a lot with me as he is very experienced. We did not want to give runs in the second innings, and that was great

Presentation time

2.13pm Unlike the first innings, there was no resistance from the West Indies last three in the second dig as Abrar Ahmed and Sajid Khan triggered a late collapse. The duo shared nine wickets - Sajid 5 for 50, Abrar Abrar 4 for 27 - to give Pakistan a comfortable 127-run win in the end. Sajid, like he had promised in the press conference got Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan to do his celebratory pose after he bagged another five-for. West Indies showed resistance largely through Alick Athanaze's well-compiled half-century but apart from that, there was little to show for the visitors. So, the game is done and dusted inside three days. This despite only 40-odd overs possible on the opening day. Do hang around for the presentation. Who should be the player of the match? Surely, Sajid isn't it?

Ozzy: "It seems Abrar completes the spin bowling attack for Pakistan. He has shown that he can wrap up the tail much better than the finger spinners."

Monish Pokhrel: "I had read somewhere that Sajid wanted Babar and Rizwan to celebrate his five-fer in Sajid's style? did they??" Yep!

Abbasii: "The wicket wasn't easy to bat on, but some of the shot selection from both sides were extremely dubious. The four fifties in the game showed that if the batsman applied themselves, they could score runs"

Abrar is on a hat-trick. Three slips, leg slip and a short leg

Jayden Seales in at No. 11. Three slips for the left-hander

Jomel Warrican is the new batter but not at strike at the moment

Gudakesh Motie

Faisal Shahab : "Is it a co incidence that the batsmen who attack on tough pitches are often the one's who end up scoring the most? I guess that's the way to play on such surfaces - imagine where west indies could have been if another couple of batsmen played attacking cricket at the top." --- Every West Indies batter played attacking cricket. But the key is not to premeditate those shots and be ready to defend if required