Vice-captain Kraigg Brathwaite became the first opener to be unbeaten in both innings of a Test, as he guided West Indies to an absorbing five-wicket win over Pakistan in Sharjah - their first Test win outside the West Indies and Bangladesh since 2007.
It was also West Indies' first win in 14 Tests and their first under the captaincy of Jason Holder. It was also their first Test victory in 19 months and ended an otherwise nightmarish tour on a celebratory note.
The Caribbean side needed just over half-hour in the morning session on the final day to complete a successful chase of their modest target of 153, as man-of-the-match Brathwaite and wicketkeeper/batsman Shane Dowrich stroked unbeaten half-centuries to end a run of eight successive losses on the tour stretching back to the Twenty20 and one-day series last month.
West Indies had not won a Test since beating England in Bridgetown in May last year, and yesterday’s victory marked only their second in 17 matches and first on foreign soil in four years.
“It is an extremely important [victory] especially after the Dubai Test match when many people thought we could have won the game. We personally felt we could have won the game but we didn’t get across the line,” Holder told reporters afterwards.
“To come here in this last Test match, putting ourselves in a position to win and actually getting across the line is a huge monkey off the back. It’s a great feeling and it just shows we have the ability to win Test matches, it’s just about stringing together a complete game.”
Resuming a tense day at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on 114 for five, still requiring a further 39 for victory, West Indies showed little signs of nerves as Man-of-the-Match Brathwaite and Dowrich produced confident knocks to extend their unbroken sixth wicket stand to 87 and erase any thoughts of a defeat.
Brathwaite, unbeaten on 44 overnight, finished on 60 not out in an innings requiring 109 deliveries, 201 minutes and including six fours while Dowrich, on 36 at the start, also marched his way to an enterprising unbeaten 60 off 87 balls, with seven fours and a six.
Any early jitters were quickly dispelled when Brathwaite punched the first ball of the day from left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz to the cover boundary, and he brought up his 12th Test half-century four balls later with a couple to deep point, to follow up his unbeaten hundred in the first innings.
Dowrich also showed his intent in the next over when he pulled leg-spinner Yasir Shah to the square boundary to move into the 40s, and the 25-year-old raised his fourth Test fifty in only his eighth game with a delightful cover drive off Wahab in the seventh over of the morning.
In the next over, Dowrich smashed a short ball from seamer Mohammed Amir through square for four and raised victory for West Indies with a boundary to third man a few deliveries later.
Scoreboard
Pakistan vs West Indies
PAKISTAN 1st Inns 281
WEST INDIES 1st Inns 337
PAKISTAN 2nd Inns 208
WEST INDIES 2nd Inns
(o/n 114 for five)
K Brathwaite not out 60
L Johnson lbw b Yasir Shah 12
D Bravo c wkp Sarfraz Ahmed b Yasir Shah 3
M Samuels c Zulfiqar Babar b Yasir Shah 10
J Blackwood b Wahab Riaz 4
R Chase c Mohammad Nawaz b Wahab Riaz 2
S Dowrich not out 60
Extras (lb2, nb1) 3
TOTAL (5 wkts, 43.5 overs) 114
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-35, 3-57, 4-63, 5-67.
Bowling: Mohammad Amir 9.5-0-43-0 (nb1), Wahab Riaz 12-0-46-2, Yasir Shah 15-4-40-3, Zulfiqar Babar 3-1-3-0, Mohammed Nawaz 4-0-20-0.
Result: West Indies won by five wickets.
Man-of-the-Match: Kraigg Brathwaite.
Man-of-the-Series: Yasir Shah.
Toss: Pakistan.
Umpires: M Gough, P Reiffel; TV – R Illingworth.