Ganga keeps West Indies afloat

West Indies 191 for 6 (Ganga 77*) trail Pakistan 304 (Yousuf 102) by 113 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
West Indies how they were out

A battling unbeaten 77 by Daren Ganga kept West Indies in the game as they closed the second day on 191 for 6, still 113 behind Pakistan's first-innings total of 304. Ganga fought off an inspired spell of reverse-swing bowling by Umar Gul - who rocked West Indies with three wickets in two overs after smashing a crucial 26 earlier in the day - and the relentless accuracy of Danish Kaneria in an attritional 212-ball innings which ensured that Pakistan didn't completely take the day's honours.

The lack of pace and bounce in the pitch were deterrents for the bowlers, but they had other factors going in their favour. The track was dry and abrasive, while the outfield was rough, and together they were perfect conditions for reverse-swing, an art in which Pakistan have long excelled. Gul led the way with two outstanding deliveries to get rid of Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan - both for ducks - while Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Nazir consistently asked questions of the batsmen with their ability to move the ball late. Danish Kaneria was hampered by the lack of bounce, but he varied his line and flight, turned the ball appreciably, and ensured that there were few scoring opportunities.

In such testing conditions, Ganga's innings was a gem. It contained few strokes to light up the ground or bring the crowd to their feet - Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul took those honours - but for sheer technical excellence, poise, composure and powers of concentration, it was a top-class effort.

Against the late swing from the fast bowlers, he displayed a compact defensive technique, getting a big front-foot stride and playing with bat right beside pad. The lack of pace also allowed him to adjust late, and he rarely committed to his shots early. Kaneria has troubled him in the past, but here even he struggled to breach Ganga's rock-solid defence. Amid all the doggedness, Ganga also produced a few glorious strokes - when the ball was pitched up he unfurled a couple of copy-book correct off-drives, while a cut shot off Gul, played off the front foot, showed just how well he had adjusted to the surface.

While he negotiated the swing and the spin five of his mates fell to a combination of outstanding bowling and bad luck. Gayle started off at a frenetic pace in the morning, driving superbly down the ground and getting to 40 in quick time before mistiming a long hop straight to mid-on. If that was a wicket gifted away, the next two certainly weren't. Gul, bowling an inspired spell in the afternoon session, first took care of Lara with one that pitched on middle, moved away, beat Lara's hesitant second-ball prod, and took off. In his next over Sarwan - back in the side after missing out at Multan - was clueless against the perfect inswinging yorker. Fifty-one without loss quickly became 51 for 3, before Shivnarine Chanderpaul produced the second fluent cameo of the day.

Timing the ball as sublimely as Mohammad Yousuf had on the first day, Chanderpaul started off with two crisply timed clips off his legs for fours, and raced to 36 from 49 balls before Imran Farhat took the first of two slightly fortuitous catches at short leg as Chanderpaul flicked one from the middle of the bat.

Runako Morton's technique was severely tested by the ball swinging in to him, but he survived and managed to add 39 with Ganga, before Farhat plucked off another one - this time the ball hit Farhat's shoulder, and perhaps grazed the visor, before lobbing into his hands. There was a moment of controversy too, as the third umpire was called in to check if the ball had indeed touched the helmet, in which case the batsman would have been ruled not out. Replays were inconclusive, and Kaneria had his second wicket of the day.

Those wickets buoyed up Kaneria, who wheeled down 28.4 overs with unflagging enthusiasm throughout a long day, and he soon had another dismissal to celebrate, as the out-of-sorts Dwayne Bravo finally ran out of patience and bottom-edged a cut to the wicketkeeper. Ganga kept West Indies afloat, but with 113 in the arrears, West Indies still have plenty of work to do on the third day.