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Five defeats in a row
Wisden CricInfo staff - February 7, 2002
West Indies have now lost their last five Tests, and 23 of their last 27 overseas Tests, including their last 12 matches away from home (two against England, five against Australia, three against Sri Lanka, and these two against Pakistan).
Dinanath Ramnarine bagged a pair, his second in successive Tests (also in the third Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo). He has now gone eight Test innings without scoring a run - 0* and 0, 0 and 0*, and 0 and 0 in the series against Sri Lanka, and 0 and 0 in this match. Merv Dillon also collected a pair, the third of his Test career.
In his 92nd match, Carl Hooper became the 49th batsman to make 5000 Test runs. He is the ninth West Indian, after Viv Richards, Garry Sobers, Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd, Desmond Haynes, Brian Lara, Rohan Kanhai and Richie Richardson.
When he had made 6 in the second innings Yousuf Youhana reached 500 runs for the calendar year 2002. He is believed to be the first player to reach this landmark before St Valentine's Day.
Younis Khan made 153, his fifth Test hundred, four of which have been made outside Pakistan, and his highest Test score. His previous-best was 149 not out, against New Zealand at Auckland in 2000-01. Younis is playing in his 18th match.
Pakistan scored over 400 in the first innings for the sixth consecutive Test. Starting with the second Test against England at Old Trafford in May 2001, their first-innings scores have been: 403, 546-3 dec, 490-9 dec, 465-9 dec, 493 and 472.
Shahid Afridi made 107, his second Test century in his 12th Test. His highest score is 141, made in his second Test, against India at Chennai in 1998-99. Afridi is playing in his first Test since the third match against England at Karachi in December 2000.
For the fourth time in the last five Tests, two Pakistan batsmen made centuries in the first innings. In their last nine Tests - including this one -Pakistan batsmen have made 16 first-innings centuries and none in the second innings.
Afridi and Younis added 190, a record for Pakistan's second wicket against West Indies. The previous-best was between Saeed Ahmed and Hanif Mohammad, who added 178 at Karachi in 1958-59. This is the 39th Test between the sides.
Sharjah is the first neutral venue to stage two Tests. The three Tests between Australia and South Africa in 1912, played as part of the Triangular Tournament, were played at The Oval, Old Trafford and Trent Bridge. One match was also played at Dhaka, the final of the Asian Test Championship between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1998-99.
Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
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