Pakistan conclude their tour of the Caribbean this week when they and West Indies face each other in the second of the two Test matches on the schedule. Just like the opening game last week this one comes from Sabina Park in Jamaica.
The first Test was an absolute thriller last week which was won by West Indies in nervy fashion. Hopefully the second one is just as good as Pakistan go about levelling the series and ending their tour on a high.
West Indies
The first Test was a welcome return to winning ways for West Indies but it will mean precious little to them if they undo their hard work in this match, so in a lot of ways this game is even bigger than the first one even though they can’t lose the series now. There are World Test Championship points at stake here and if their opponents are still wounded from the first Test then this would appear a great chance for West Indies not only to begin a winning culture but also pick up another bunch of points to go to that table.
West Indies’ bowling looked in pretty decent order in the opening match and there is probably a bit more to come from them when they settle on the correct combination. The improvement can come with the bat. They have the talent in the batting department to go well but not all their players have the application. They will continue to search for ones who have the full package but for now there should be enough to put up a few more runs.
Pakistan
Clearly there is no doubt that Pakistan will be disappointed with the first Test. They never really had complete control of the match but they did set a total which you thought they would be able to defend in the fourth innings but that wasn’t the case. They worked hard to almost get over the line but couldn’t quite find that killer punch which will have disappointed them. They will now need to use all their character to overcome that disappointment and bounce back to win this game.
Pakistan will look at their bowlers and wonder why they didn’t get the job done on that final day but with the exception of Yasir Shah, in the main they did a decent enough job but their batsmen really let them down. They are going to need a lot more output from their batters if they are going to win this match. There is the talent in that line up though so it might be that having had a run they are now more at it in terms of delivering good performances.
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Team News
West Indies will need to decide whether they want a spinner here and if they are going to stick with Jomel Warrican or bring in the extra batting depth with Rakheem Cornwall. If they choose an all seam attack then Alzarri Joseph could be recalled.
The same question will be asked of Pakistan although they rarely going into a Test match without a spinner. Yasir Shah was impotent in the first game though so if they are going to pick a spinner they might choose to give Nauman Ali a go.
Betting
This one could go either way I think which probably makes West Indies an ounce of value but I’m not yet in a position whereby I trust them with my money in this format of the game so I’ll head off to the side markets for a bet with the one in question coming in the player performances where the 123.5 line of Jason Holder might not be high enough for an all-rounder who contributed in all three scoring methods in the first Test and isn’t likely to stop there in conditions which suit.
Holder scored 50 in the first innings and took three wickets and a catch so he would have had this line covered halfway through the opening game but he still kept on scoring and eventually ended up with 184 points without really doing anything of note in the second innings. That highlights the scoring potential of the former West Indies captain. He can cover this line with four average innings or a couple of special ones so I like the over here.
Tips
Back J.Holder’s Performance – Over 123.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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