Dropped catches, no-balls a factor in the loss – Holder

West Indies captain Jason Holder has said that the reprieves given to Azhar Ali in the first innings and the large number of extras conceded by the side were factors in their 56-run defeat to Pakistan in the first Test in Dubai. Holder lauded the team, particularly batsman Darren Bravo, for running Pakistan close and taking the match into the final hour on the fifth day despite having been on the back foot for the first three days of the Test.

Azhar was dropped twice in his innings of 302 not out: on 17, Leon Johnson put down a sharp catch at gully off Miguel Cummins, and on 190 by Jermaine Blackwood off Roston Chase’s bowling.

“It’s tough to say. When you look at the game in hindsight you can say a lot of things. Obviously credit must go to Azhar Ali, I thought he played really well. We put him down; at that stage if we would have held him, we would have had a new batsman in,” Holder said. “But that’s cricket. If you look at it critically, it’s those one or two chances that we missed. In the second innings, Babar Azam getting out off a no-ball. Things like this, if we negate them then we have less problems going forward.”

Holder …

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