International Cricket: West Indies vs. Pakistan 8/20/21 Test Cricket Prediction

Pakistan’s tour of the West Indies resumes on Friday August 20th, 2021 at 11:00am EST with the second and final test match being played at Kingston in Jamaica.

Often it is said that test matches are boring, that they provide little thrill or excitement, yet, West Indies and Pakistan were neck and neck in the battle with West Indies winning by the closest of margins on Sunday to lead the 2-match series 1-0.It was a low scoring affair from both sides as the pacers were on song, their lines and lengths were consistent which prevented many of the batsmen from effectively troubling the scores. Come Friday, Pakistan will be hungry to rewrite the wrongs of the first test as they will feel they were hard done while on the other side of the coin, West Indies will be inspired from their astonishing win and will seek to apply a better batting display and similar bowling acumen.

West Indies have found heroes in their bowlers ironically with the bat, Kemar Roach was sensational scoring a match-winning knock of 30 not out with Jayden Seales scoring 2 valuable runs off 13 balls. In West Indies’ first batting innings, Kraigg Brathwaite was a picture of concentration, his well composed knock of 97 was arguably his best batting performance in the last few years, ably assisting him was former test captain Jason Holder with a solid 58 to help the home side reach 253. Windies’ second innings left a lot to be desired as they stumbled to 16 for 3 before a recovery partnership of 68 between Roston Chase (22) and vice-captain Jermaine Blackwood (55). A further slump saw them reeling at 151 for 9 before they held their nerve to secure the win. From a bowling aspect, the young Jayden Seales has continued to impressive with 3 wickets in the first innings and 5 in the second to become the youngest West Indian to take a 5-wicket haul in an innings. His mentor, Kemar Roach took 5 wickets in the match while the ever-reliable Jason Holder took 4. West Indies are showing that they can win the close games but have not showing the ability to dominate teams on a consistent level, can the next match show a more assertive and aggressive side to them or will they continue to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

Pakistan’s performance deserves high praise despite being on the losing end of the first encounter. Their bowling challenged the Windies batsmen for most of the match but lapses of concentration primarily drop catches at pivotal moments caused the game to slip from their grasp. Shaheen Afridi is the most threatening bowler on tour, he picked up 8 wickets across the two innings, almost single-handedly winning it for the Pakistanis while Hasan Ali took 4 and Mohammad Abbas took 3. Babar Azam, Pakistan’s captain, will look to himself to be more composed and selective of his shots going into the second test after he had scores of 30 and 55. Fawad Alam notched up 56 in the first innings while Faheem Ashraf scored 44, outside of those three batsmen Pakistan didn’t have much to shout about with bat in hand and will be eager to have a better showing as they are aware they did not display their true batting potential. Pakistan knows that they through the first game away but they must put that behind them and regroup, a lot of cricket left to be played, will they apply themselves accordingly or will they be on the losing side yet again?

An extremely close finish that excited many cricketing fans across the world, especially the West Indian fans. A change for both teams is expected as the spinners Jomel Warrican (West Indies) and Yasir Shah (Pakistan) were hardly used due to the nature of the pitch, so will those changes prove to be match-winning changes? Despite West Indies barely managing to hold on for the win, I expect them to perform a lot better and take the second game quite comfortably.