I was mentioning yesterday in the match thread when we were batting, that we should let Azhar bat and see if he can get 400. We declared too early IMO.
Should have looked to keep batting until half way today, and see if the pitch starts to crack & the ball spins.
In my mind it was simple - if the pitch started to crack and the ball started to spin, we would have easily picked up 20 West Indian wickets in 2.5 days. However, if we let WI bat on a flat track, they get an opportunity to eat up some of the deficit and they can get into a position where they don't need to follow on.
Should of batted until half way today, look to get 750-800 (400 of them for Azhar) on the board and ask WI to score 550-600 to avoid the follow on, on a spinning wicket. IMO that would of been a much better strategy.
Right now, if WI bat for another day, they will easily avoid the follow on and Pakistan will have to bat again with 1.5 day to go. At that stage we will be in a tricky position. Should we look to go hard and get a total on the board which we can defend and pick up 10 wickets in 0.75-1 day, or do we just play out for the draw? If Pakistan is forced to bat again on day 4 it will be quite tricky for us to force a result.
Anyway, that's just my opinion, let's see if what happens. Still a long way to go in this match.
Hope Azhar hasn't suffered any serious damage here and wish him a speedy recovery InshAllah! That was hit very hard by Samuels!