West Indies Bowlers Create Historic Moment with the Bat in Hand, Following Noman Ali's Hat-Trick

A remarkable turn of events occurred in the second Test between West Indies and Pakistan in Multan as West Indies bowlers had an unexpected impact with the bat, something done only once before in 148 years of Test cricket history. Despite a disastrous batting collapse that saw the visitors lose 8 wickets for just 54 runs, the final three batters of the West Indies team—Gudakesh Motie, Kemar Roach, and Jomel Warrican—stepped up, adding a combined total of 116 runs. This remarkable resistance from the tail-enders was the second instance in cricket history where tailenders made the highest individual runs in an innings and was a revisit of the feat from the first Test.

Left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie of West Indies added a well-played 55 runs to lead the fight for adding some respect to the team's total. Then came out the paceman Kemar Roach and the score mounted up in his own English to 25. At this stage, Jomel Warrican added another 36 runs with this to lift the score past the three-figure mark. This partnership between the tailenders is a historic one for West Indies because they have managed to avoid disaster at the score sheet, thanks largely to their determination and grit at this point.

This was the first time ever in Test cricket that lower-order batters were leading the charge, other than when it happened in the first Test of the same series between Pakistan and West Indies. In that match, too, a similar pattern emerged when the last three West Indies batters scored the highest individual knocks, making this bizarre yet extraordinary statistic.

In the same game, Pakistan's left-arm spinner Noman Ali made history of his own. Noman became the first-ever Pakistani spinner to take a hat-trick in Test cricket. His achievement placed him among an exclusive group of Pakistani bowlers, becoming only the fifth player from the country to achieve this remarkable feat in Test matches. Before Noman, great bowlers like Wasim Akram, Pakistan's legend fast bowler, and Naseem Shah who have recently walked in the same path have performed well. The first Pakistani pacer to take a Test hat-trick was Akram back in 1997. Naseem Shah, who was the last of taking a hat-trick back in the year of 2020 against Bangladesh, has enriched their legacy.

Noman had come into the 12th over of West Indies's innings, bewildering the visitors with skillful bowling. He began his onslaught by sending West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite back early in the innings. This wicket, however, only signified a destructive spell from Noman, where he would take three wickets in three deliveries. His first victim in the triple-crown spell was Justin Greaves, and the wild drive that was found to edge back towards the slip fielders sealed his doom. After this, Noman came in as a well-played delivery of his trapped the unfortunate Tevin Imlach right in front of the stump.

Noman completed his hat-trick with an impeccable delivery to Kevin Sinclair, who attempted an audacious drive but managed to edge the ball towards Babar Azam stationed at gully. Babar's stunning catch up in the low seal of the match plus earned his place in cricketing history for Noman Ali. His batting for Pakistan helped them to win the game completely and also ensured that hosts dominated West Indies right from the earlier stages.

Even though the match had ended in a collapse, the tailenders' fightback was a testament to the unpredictable nature of Test cricket. Motie, Roach, and Warrican showed great resilience, while Noman's historic performance with the ball added another chapter to Pakistan's cricketing story. For West Indies, though, it was a familiar tale of batting struggles, but they will take some solace in the efforts of their bowlers with the bat.

As the game continues, so will the team's efforts at adding to those moments in cricket history, though the memory most will carry on is that unprecedented achievement by West Indies' lower-order batsmen and a match-winning Noman Ali hat-trick, surely one of the historic moments in the Test cricket archives.