Pakistan vs West Indies: West Indies implode after Darren Bravo ton, hand Pakistan win in opening Test

Pakistan prevail over West Indies to win first ever pink-ball Test in Asia and their 400th by 56 runs in Dubai.

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Darren Bravo’s 116 went in vain as West Indies lost to Pakistan in first Test. (Source: AP file)

A heroic and historic century from Darren Bravo put West Indies in sight of the unlikeliest win in the first Test in Dubai on Monday before Pakistan finally prevailed by 56 runs on an absorbing final day of the day-night contest.

Chasing a daunting target of 346, Bravo compiled the eighth Test ton of his career to offer the faint prospect of a fantastic West Indies win after they had trailed by 222 on first innings following Pakistan’s monumental 579 for three. It was the first century to be scored in day-night Test cricket using the pink ball.

Bravo’s patient batting, following his 87 in the first innings, kept alive West Indies’ hopes after Devendra Bishoo’s eight-wicket haul had brought them back into the match on the penultimate day.

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Yet once Bravo’s 249-ball vigil was ended when he became the seventh Windies victim, caught brilliantly for 116 by Yasir Shah off his own bowling, there was only going to be one fitting outcome to Pakistan’s 400th Test.

Noble resistance from captain Jason Holder, unbeaten on 40, kept alive the faintest hopes of Windies survival into the final hour but the run-outs of tail-enders Miguel Cummins and Shannon Gabriel, as Holder attempted to farm the strike, ensured Pakistan took a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series.

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