Gave Bishoo 'eight soft wickets' - Arthur

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur said his batsmen had given West Indies legspinner Devendra Bishoo "eight soft wickets" during their second-innings collapse on the fourth day of the day-night Test in Dubai. Having taken a 222-run lead in the first innings, Pakistan were dismissed for 123 in 31.5 overs, losing their last six wickets for 11 runs. Chasing 346, West Indies were 95 for 2 at stumps with senior batsmen Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo at the crease.

Arthur praised Bishoo but rued that the collapse had given West Indies a chance to win the game. He said Pakistan's plan when they chose not to enforce the follow-on was to score about 180 runs in 45 overs and shut West Indies out of the match.

"I am not going to take anything away from the way Bishoo bowled because he bowled really, really well," Arthur said. "I thought we gave him eight soft wickets. We were cutting against the spin, some lazy shots. That is something we have spoken hard about because that's not how we play the game. We worked so hard to get ourselves in front of the game and then in one session we lost 6 for 11 and that gave West Indies a sniff. We want to be better than that. We want to be a team that closes the opposition out when we get the opportunity and we didn't.

"The message was very simple: we wanted a score of 180 in 45-50 overs. We felt that would have given us 25-30 overs tonight and a full day tomorrow. So we were looking at 180 in probably 45 overs at the most and we played poorly."

Bishoo, whose returns of 8 for 49 were the best by a visiting bowler in Asia, said he had reflected on his performance in the first innings - 2 for 125 in 35 overs - and decided to bowl straighter, targeting the stumps, in the second innings.

"Last evening I spent some time thinking about how I had bowled in the first innings and I was bowling most likely fourth-fifth stump and they were cutting the ball down to cover for a single all the time," Bishoo said. "So I tried to bowl straighter on the stumps. I expected the ball to spin more on the fourth and the fifth days, and that's exactly what happened. I used the rough a little and I tried to use the crease a bit more and tried to bowl more on the stumps."
Arthur said the batting implosion had forced Pakistan to play slightly defensively when West Indies came out to chase on the fourth evening. He said the team was working towards eradicating issues, like the sudden collapse, from their game.
"We've batted really well, certainly through the Test matches in England I thought we were excellent, and we were brilliant in the first innings here. So that is something we are trying to eradicate. We want to get this completely out of our game. Consistency is something we need to keep working on, we are talking long and hard about it.
"We were disappointed that we took our foot off their throat and gave them a glimpse into the game when we should have put them out of it. Because what that would have done for our spinners tomorrow is it would have allowed us to have close catchers for longer. So tonight we have a man at sweeper and we haven't got a silly point to Bravo and that's simply because the game is getting closer."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Bishoo bowled well but when you have a sizeable lead, little respect for your opposition, you take chances.

However Bishoo outfoxed those batsmen and well done to him.

Posturing from Arthur so nothing new in this new age of cricket.

Hope Bishoo takes this confidence into the second test and also value his wicket as I think he is very capable with the bat.

If Bishoo has two tests without wickets he will be dropped again which would be mindless.

Bad call from the Coach !

extra Bat for the Spinner....

This PITCH was totally different from Leeds....

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