Babar Azam Left Stranded as West Indies Pacers Script Big Win in 1st Test Against Pakistan

West Indies defeated Pakistan by 90 runs at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy after Jayden Seales claimed five wickets and Babar Azam carried his bat for an unbeaten 58 in a failed chase of 211.

Babar Azam stood at one end for nearly three and a half hours, watching Pakistan’s pursuit of 211 disintegrate around him.

He survived the new ball, reached his half-century, fought through the pressure created by a rapidly shrinking batting order, and even found unlikely support from Mohammad Abbas. None of it was enough.

West Indies dismissed Pakistan for 120 in 40.2 overs to win the first Test by 90 runs at Tarouba and take an unassailable 1-0 lead in the two-match series. The result also handed the hosts 12 ICC World Test Championship points while Pakistan left the inaugural Test at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy with nothing.

Jayden Seales finished with 5-20 from 14.2 overs, including six maidens, while Justin Greaves followed his first-innings five-wicket haul with another two crucial wickets. Kemar Roach removed two batters, and Shamar Joseph accounted for one as the West Indies pace attack shared all 10 wickets.

The scorecard will show another Pakistan batting collapse. The deeper story concerns the isolation of Babar, the physical limitations affecting first-innings centurion Shan Masood, and a batting lineup that failed to match the discipline shown by its own bowlers.

West Indies vs Pakistan 1st Test scorecard

• Player of the Match: Justin Greaves, 5-27, 20 and 2-12
• West Indies’ leading batter: Shai Hope, 92
• Pakistan’s leading batter: Shan Masood, 109
• Best bowling figures: Mohammad Abbas, 5-22
• Series position: West Indies lead 1-0 with one Test remaining
• WTC points: West Indies 12, Pakistan 0

Babar Azam fights alone as Pakistan collapse

Pakistan began the final innings requiring 211, a challenging target on a surface that continued to reward accurate fast bowling but one that still appeared reachable if the top order could absorb the opening spells.

That hope lasted only a few overs.

Imam-ul-Haq edged Roach behind for three at 5-1. Test debutant Azan Awais followed for the same score after Seales found his outside edge. Salman Agha was trapped lbw for a six-ball duck, leaving Pakistan 25-3 inside eight overs.

By lunch, they were 28-3. Babar had already become the central figure in the chase, not because Pakistan had constructed a platform for him, but because nearly every other specialist batter had failed to stay with him.

Mohammad Rizwan offered brief resistance before Greaves bowled him for 11. Aamer Jamal was trapped lbw for a 12-ball duck by the same bowler. Roach then removed Ali Usman for two, reducing Pakistan to 53-6.

Six wickets had fallen before the team reached one-quarter of its target.

Babar continued to leave carefully outside off stump and punished the occasional loose delivery. His nine boundaries came without reckless expansion or desperate slogging. He reached 50 from 81 balls, but the milestone carried little celebration because Pakistan were already nine wickets down.

The series had begun as a red-ball reset under Babar’s restored captaincy. His unbeaten 58 showed the technical control and personal responsibility Pakistan needed from him. The innings also revealed how little support existed around the captain when the match reached its most demanding phase.

Shan Masood’s injury changed Pakistan’s chase

The most damaging absence was not recorded as a missing name on the scorecard.

Shan Masood had scored a gritty 109 in Pakistan’s first innings, becoming the first Test centurion at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy. His 155-run partnership with Imam brought Pakistan back from 1-1 and created an opportunity to move beyond West Indies’ 311.

An injury, however, prevented Masood from occupying his usual position at the top of the order in the chase. By the time he entered at No. 8, Pakistan were already 53-6 and the original structure of the innings had disappeared.

Masood attempted to survive rather than dominate. He made three from 15 balls before Seales removed him, with Shamar Joseph taking the catch.

It would be unfair to claim Masood alone would have carried Pakistan to 211. The West Indies quicks were too accurate, and the rest of Pakistan’s batting was too fragile for one hypothetical partnership to erase every problem.

Still, his injury had a major tactical cost. Pakistan lost the opener who had spent 184 balls understanding the pitch in the first innings. Babar was denied the teammate best equipped to share the new-ball burden, manage the chase and build a serious partnership.

The contrast was painful. Masood had provided Pakistan’s longest and most important innings of the match. When the same team needed him again, he could only appear after six wickets had fallen.

Mohammad Abbas exposes the scale of Pakistan’s batting failure

The most revealing Pakistan statistic did not belong to Babar or Masood.

Mohammad Abbas scored 23 from 33 balls and became the team’s second-highest scorer in the fourth innings. His contribution was also the joint fourth-highest individual score by a Pakistani across the entire Test.

That figure explains the defeat more clearly than any tactical theory.

Only Babar, Abbas and Rizwan reached double figures during the chase. Five players were dismissed for two runs or fewer, including three ducks. Pakistan’s nine dismissed batters contributed just 49 runs between them.

Abbas joined Babar at 71-9 and helped add 49 for the final wicket, the largest partnership of the innings. The stand delayed West Indies and took Pakistan from complete humiliation to a slightly more respectable total, but it never placed the outcome in genuine doubt.

The end came when Seales brought one back into Abbas and struck his front pad. The batter reviewed the decision, but ball tracking showed the delivery brushing the outside of leg stump. The umpire’s call stood, giving Seales his fourth Test five-wicket haul and confirming West Indies’ 90-run victory.

Justin Greaves broke Pakistan twice

Seales delivered the decisive spell on the final day, but Justin Greaves had already altered the direction of the Test.

Pakistan appeared well placed at 244-4 in their first innings, with Masood completing his seventh Test century. A substantial lead remained possible. Greaves then dismantled the lower order with a remarkable sequence of five consecutive wicket-maiden overs.

Masood, Jamal, Ali Usman, Rizwan and Abbas all fell to Greaves as Pakistan lost five wickets for 23 runs. More specifically, five wickets disappeared for 15 runs between 244-4 and 259-8.

Pakistan eventually reached 282, conceding a 29-run first-innings lead when they had briefly looked capable of controlling the match. Greaves finished with 5-27 from 11 overs, including six maidens.

He returned in the second innings to dismiss Rizwan and Jamal, ending the match with seven wickets and 20 useful runs.

“This performance is right up there,” Greaves said after receiving the Player of the Match award. “I put my best foot forward whenever it is about to get the team over the line.”

His performance supported the advantage he created with his first-innings five-for. West Indies did not simply wait for Pakistan to collapse. Greaves manufactured the opening and Seales finished the job.

Pakistan’s fast bowlers deserved a better result

Pakistan’s decision to reshape the bowling attack largely worked.

Mohammad Abbas, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Ali and Aamer Jamal took all 20 West Indies wickets. None relied on extreme speed. They succeeded through seam movement, control and sustained pressure.

Mohammad Ali collected 4-50 in the first innings, while Abbas produced 5-22 from 15.5 overs in the second. West Indies slipped to 93-7 before Shamar Joseph changed the complexion of the match with 38 from 27 balls.

Joseph struck four sixes and added 61 with Roach for the eighth wicket. Those lower-order runs lifted West Indies to 181 and pushed the target to 211. On a better batting surface, that partnership might have been treated as a useful bonus. At Tarouba, it proved decisive.

Abbas deserved more than defeat after taking eight wickets in the match and contributing the second-highest score in Pakistan’s chase. His 5-22 also placed him on the venue’s first Test honours board alongside Masood, Greaves and Seales.

Pakistan’s bowlers completed their primary assignment by taking 20 wickets. The batting unit failed to convert that work into a competitive result.

All 40 wickets fall to fast bowling at Tarouba

The inaugural Test at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy produced a remarkable piece of Caribbean history.

According to former West Indies leg-spinner Samuel Badree, this was the first Test in the Caribbean in which fast bowlers claimed all 40 wickets.

West Indies selected Jomel Warrican, but the left-arm spinner bowled 18 overs across the match without taking a wicket. Pakistan’s specialist slow bowler, debutant Ali Usman, was also wicketless.

The match belonged to seam movement, disciplined lengths and batters’ ability to survive repeated examination around off stump. Greaves and Seales earned five-wicket hauls for West Indies, while Abbas registered Pakistan’s only five-for.

The milestone added further significance to the first Test staged at a venue more familiar with white-ball cricket. Tarouba’s opening red-ball contest immediately produced its own identity.

Pakistan’s away Test crisis gets worse

The defeat extended Pakistan’s run to eight consecutive Test losses away from home. They have now gone three years without an overseas Test victory.

That record cannot be blamed on one difficult pitch, one injury or one destructive spell.

Pakistan entered the series after returning the Test captaincy to Babar Azam. Leadership changed, the pace attack changed, and younger players were given opportunities. The same batting weaknesses remained visible when the ball moved and the match demanded patience.

The visitors lost six wickets for 38 runs after reaching 244-4 in the first innings. They then collapsed to 71-9 in the second. Those were separate innings, but the underlying issue was identical: once a set batter or established partnership disappeared, Pakistan had no mechanism for slowing the collapse.

The second Test offers a chance to draw the series, but Pakistan cannot win it. West Indies have already secured at least a share of the contest and will enter the final match with greater confidence in both their pace attack and lower-order resilience.

Final verdict: Babar stayed, but Pakistan never built around him

Babar’s unbeaten 58 will be remembered as a captain’s resistance, although it could not become a match-winning innings because Pakistan never gave it the necessary support.

Masood’s injury removed the batter best prepared to stand beside him. Rizwan was the only specialist teammate to reach double figures, and Abbas had to perform a role that should never have fallen to the No. 11.

West Indies were sharper in the passages that defined the match. Hope and Hodge built the first-innings total, Joseph and Roach stretched the lead when Pakistan threatened to regain control, Greaves destroyed the first innings, and Seales settled the second.

Pakistan also produced four worthy individual performances through Masood, Babar, Abbas and Mohammad Ali. The difference was that West Indies connected their contributions. Pakistan’s best efforts remained isolated.

Babar was the last specialist batter standing. By the time Abbas was struck on the pad at 120, he was also the only Pakistani left with whom the captain could have continued the fight.

That final image captured Pakistan’s Test more accurately than the 90-run margin: Babar unbeaten at one end, his teammates gone, and another away match slipping into a familiar pattern.

Explore more cricket news and analysis from The Sports Encounter, including our examination of what history suggested about Pakistan’s fourth-innings chase and the wider legacy of Pakistan’s greatest Test-era performances against West Indies. Full match figures can be reviewed through the official first Test scorecard.