Taylor leads West Indies fightback with five wickets

MULTAN, Nov 20 (Reuters) West Indies paceman Jerome Taylor completed a five-wicket haul to lead a spirited second-morning fightback by the tourists, who dismissed Pakistan for 357 on the stroke of lunch in the second test today.

Taylor finished with figures of 5-91, his second five-wicket return in test cricket, as West Indies took six wickets in the session for just 94 runs.

Last man Danish Kaneria was run out off the final ball before the interval to complete a miserable morning for Pakistan, who resumed on 263-4 but lost skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq in the third over of the day for his overnight score of 31 runs.

Taylor received admirable support from Corey Collymore, who bowled 31 overs in the innings and deserved more than the two wickets he got for 67 runs on a track that favoured the batsmen.

Inzamam fell to a beauty of a delivery from Taylor after the paceman got the second new ball to nip away off a good length as the Pakistan skipper was squared up and edged a catch to keeper Denesh Ramdin.

Collymore should have removed the other overnight batsman Shoaib Malik on 14 but Brian Lara was unable to take a difficult chance, and the same bowler was denied again when Dwayne Bravo spilled a sitter at third slip with the batsman on 20.

The let-offs enabled Malik to put on 46 runs for the sixth wicket with Abdul Razzaq, who curbed his natural game to play an unusually subdued innings of 16 not out from 92 balls in 141 minutes.

Collymore eventually got Malik for 42 when Bravo made amends for his earlier misdemeanour with a fantastic diving left-handed catch.

Bravo was on hand to take another sharp chance offered by wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal on 17, giving Collymore his second wicket with the total on 333-7.

Taylor mopped up the tail with the wickets of Shahid Nazir and Umar Gul, who gave Bravo his third catch of the innings.

Pakistan lead the three-match series 1-0 after last week's nine-wicket victory in Lahore.

REUTERS AY VC1410