‘6-fer against Pakistan felt extremely special,’ says WI spinner Warrican

Port of Spain, Aug 5 (IANS) West Indies left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican said picking a six-wicket haul against Pakistan in the ongoing game at the Queen’s Park Ova; as ‘extremely special,’ adding that stepping up to carry the bowling workload in the absence of injured captain Roston Chase made the performance even more gratifying.

With Chase nursing an index finger injury that restricted him to just seven overs, Warrican shouldered the bulk of the bowling duties, by sending down 46 overs. His figures of 6-112 helped West Indies trigger a Pakistani collapse on day three, thus restricting the visitors lead to just 43 runs after they lost eight wickets for 106 runs.

“I think that’s probably the (performance) I’ll cherish the most, because the team was down and the skipper was struggling with his finger, and I had to take up the mantle of working hard and bowling all those extra overs to help out the team. In terms of workload and to get rewarded for bowling so many overs, it felt extremely special,” Warrican said at the end of day three’s play.

It was Warrican’s third five-wicket haul in Test cricket and first on home soil. “I always wanted a five-for at home. That’s something that I will cherish, because watching the highlights when it’s showing old clips, it’s always home series, and I always wanted to be in the dressing room watching an old clip of me getting a five-for, and it happened in this game, so I’m really happy about that,” he added.

But West Indies stumbled again in their second innings, sliding to 103/6 at stumps. Though off-spinner Sajid Khan took four scalps, West Indies have managed to hold a slender overall lead of 60 runs. Looking ahead to day four’s play, Warrican urged the remaining batters to set a defendable target.

“As a team we’ve got to get close to 150-175 to be comfortable and have a game. So we’ve got to have a plan on how we’re going to get it, and execute it when we get to bat tomorrow.”

–IANS

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