West Indies v Pakistan

At Port-of-Spain, April 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. Pakistan won by 266 runs, thus levelling the series at one victory each. They owed their triumph principally to the fine all-round performance of their captain, Mushtaq, who had been in disappointing form previously. He scored 121 and 56 and took five for 28 and three for 69 with his leg-spin. The West Indies lost mainly because of complete batting failure in both innings.

As is customary at the Queen's Park Oval, both teams strengthened their spin attacks for the match. Qasim replaced Salim for Pakistan; Inshan Ali came in for Julien for the West Indies.

For the second successive match, Lloyd decided to bowl first after winning the toss, apparently expecting the life which the same pitch had offered his fast bowlers in the second Test. It proved to be easy-paced and, despite the loss of three wickets before lunch, Pakistan rallied to an adequate first innings total.

Majid again batted with real authority, hitting one 6 and fourteen 4's in his 92. He added 108 for the fourth wicket with Mushtaq, who took the responsibility for guiding the rest of the batting through two or three difficult periods. He was eventually ninth out for 121 after batting six hours ten minutes during which he hit fourteen 4's. His eighth wicket partnership of 68 with Sarfraz was an important contribution.

The West Indies innings was launched confidently by Fredericks and Greenidge in a stand of 73. Suddenly, both were out in successive overs and the remaining batsmen collapsed so rapidly that Pakistan gained an excellent lead of 187. Mushtaq, who pitched his leg-breaks and googlies perfectly, and the persistent Imran were responsible for the demise.

The West Indies bowlers did all they could in the second innings to overcome the deficit and removed Majid, Zaheer, Sadiq, Haroon and Asif by the time the score was 95.

Their fight back was ended by Mushtaq and the consistent Raja in a sixth wicket partnership of 116. The fast bowlers, Imran and Sarfraz, made assurance doubly sure with a stand of 73 for the eighth wicket.

To have any hope of reaching the nearly impossible 489 required of them, the West Indies needed a sound beginning. Instead, Fredericks, Greenidge, Richards and Shillingford were gone by the end of the fourth day with only 146 scored.

Mushtaq removed Richards, stumped off a perfectly-pitched leg-break, and Shillingford, and when he added Kallicharran in his first over next morning it was only a matter of time before Pakistan won. For two and a half hours Murray and Roberts hung on so grimly as to induce some panic among their opponents but, finally, Mushtaq gave Raja the ball and his leg-spin soon claimed the three wickets needed.